Stranger Things Have Happened
by lembasbreadmadebysoufflegirl
Summary: Hobbit retelling, Kili/OC. A normal Scottish girl is thrown headfirst into the world of the Hobbit and runs into Gandalf. She has seen the movie, but she read the book a long time ago and so doesn't remember everything. M for violence, language, and just-in-case, maybe-I-dunno-yet potential.
1. Chapter 1

**So, um, I hope this is any good. It was mostly inspired (and with a bit of reference to) The Inconvenient and Unexpected Journey of Alexandria Millicent Fournier. **

Chapter One:

My name is Freya Macintosh. You may never have heard of me, but I guarantee you that you've at least dreamed about what happened to me. But trust me, it's not much of a dreamboat. This is how it started:

I leaned against the wall of my building, in which I had been living since I graduated from college. My flatmate, Lily, sat on the couch, sighing.

"Freya?" she asked.

"Mm?" I replied, not opening my eyes or lifting my head.

"Do you ever think that graduate students from MIT, like us, should've found more things to do with their lives?"

I opened my eyes. "Well, yeah, Lily. But the fact remains, we didn't." Even in that tiny piece of my speech, you could hear the Scottish accent.

The other twenty-four year old spun her head around, standing up. "You can't be serious!" Unlike me, everything she did or said just about _screamed_ American.

"But I am!" I spat, my temper going from zero to ten in two seconds. "Listen, Lily. It's not _my_ fault that the economy sucks and that we're stuck here, with a suck-ish, boring team-teaching job, but we _are_!" I opened my mouth to say more, but Lily put out her hand to stop me.

"Listen to me. I get that you grew up in London, I get that you don't have a dad, and I get that your mom kicked you out over here. 'Kay? I get that. But you're living with me, now. We can help each other, Frey!" (We'd had this conversation before, and she'd been bothering me for the past several minutes, if you're wondering why we snapped so quickly.)

I rolled my eyes. "As if we've never had this conversation," I muttered, before adding, "I'm late, Lily."

Lily flared angrily. "Fine. Go to your stupid horse thing, then."

I went upstairs and got dressed in my horse stuff. I only put on the riding breeches and leather riding boots before simply putting a warm flannel shirt over my top half. Then I yanked on my hide jacket and grabbed my backpack.

Before I left, I glanced in the mirror that hung over my bedroom wall. In it I saw a brown-haired, blue-eyed girl, with a dusting of freckles over her nose and a full, pink mouth. I grinned at myself, not realising then that the tiny glance in that mirror would be my last in that room, ever.

Looking about my room, I only spotted a few things that I really liked – my Kindle, my MacBook Pro, and my iPod. I had no remainders of my childhood in that room, not one single stuffed animal or painting. The only things I liked about the room were the colour (dark blue), and those three objects that I soon realised I didn't like or need that much at all.

I turned and scurried down the stairs.

I sat in my car and gazed up at the window of my flat to see Lily waving at me. I waved back, my hands tucked into Mitchell-from-Being-Human style gloves.

I never saw Lily again.

As I drove down the road, I noticed that my car was having...difficulties. By the time I reached far enough away that I couldn't walk back, it died. I got out and kicked it before sitting on the roof. I was so tired. For awhile, the only thing that had kept me going was my BBC shows – they reminded me of home. But I had stopped watching _Being Human_ when Mitchell died, _Sherlock_ was in a standstill, and _Doctor Who_ – I had watched every episode ever aired, and the next season _still_ hadn't come out.

Then what kept me going was Lily, until she got her boyfriend. Then it was finishing college, then Lily again, but now Lily had another boyfriend. The future seemed bleak and boring and unworthy of living for.

I sighed and braided my hair for no apparent reason, waiting for something of which I was unsure. Several times, I asked myself, _What are you waiting for? Call Triple A, or whatever it is._ But my brain always replied, _Not yet. We're waiting._

And so I sat. I checked inside my backpack, and found, to my utter surprise, some extra clothes, – a lot like I was wearing – a sewing kit, a pocket knife, and (to my complete astonishment) _The Hobbit_ and _The Lord of the Rings: One Volume _and even _The Silmarillion._ I also found several tens of pounds of British money – and only a few American dollars, which stunned me, because I had not had much other than a little American money for the past several years.

Troubled, I zipped up the back and swung it back onto my back.

I heard the blare of a horn and spun – too late. The world was gone in a flash of white, and then black. I heard screaming and yelling, felt a flare of pain, and then it all melted away.

I sat up to hear birds twittering in the trees. For there were clearly trees around me, and sun was shining between the leaves. There was a little path cutting between the trunks, and a little wooden cart was clattering along it to the right of me. I made to stand up and felt woozy.

"Patience, little one," said a deep voice that I recognized. I spun around in the grass.

"Gandalf!" I gasped. For clearly, standing in front of me, was Gandalf the Grey. From JRR Tolkien's excellent books, which happened to be in my backpack at that very second.

He gazed down at me, holding his staff in front of him. Those bright blue eyes shown out over his bushy grey beard and past his long, equally grey hair. That hat, oh, I knew that hat. And those robes. But his eyes shone with something akin to anticipation, worry, and even fear. "I do not know you, my dear," he said worriedly.

"Oh, I know," I babbled. "I mean, I've never met you, obviously, but I know you, and I know who you are, and – "

"My dear young Dwarf, how can you know me?"

I blanched. "I am _not_ a Dwarf," I said shakily. "I was human – I mean, I was of the race of Men."

"You really had better tell me what's going on," Gandalf said.

So I related what had happened to me. Literally, everything came pouring out, although I tried to make Earth sound normal-ish, and tried to make Gandalf less confused. I ended up sobbing, "And now I'm here, in Middle-Earth, a place that's completely _fictional_ where I come from, and I have the bloody _books_ of everything that happens in my knapsack!"

"Everything that happens?" asked Gandalf, leaning forward suddenly.

"Y-yes. Well, not everything, but – I know from about now to when..." I clammed up. "I can't tell you, can I?"

"No."

"Well, I know both into the past of this world and the future. One of the books concerns the past of Middle-Earth, and the other set of three the future – but see here, who are you going to see?"

"Whatever do you mean, my dear Freya?" Seeing as I had told him my name.

"I _mean_," I said exasperatedly, "Are you going to see a hobbit named Bilbo, or a hobbit named Frodo?"

"Bilbo Baggins," replied Gandalf.

"So, yeah, I have one book on the past, one book on the rather immediate future, and three books on about sixty years from now."

"All right," said Gandalf after a minute. "I believe you may be able to stand up."

I did so.

"I am going to scare you and shock you in a moment," warned Gandalf.

I was immediately on edge. "What do you mean?" I asked warily.

"I mean, Lady Freya, that I am going to tell you something – about you, I might add – that will shock you and scare you."

"Okay, shoot."

He looked at me funny. "Shoot what?"

"Oh...sorry. Never mind, talk."

Gandalf shrugged, then leaned forward, sympathy and worry in his kind eyes. "My dear girl, you are almost undoubtedly dead in your previous world."

I blinked, stunned, and suddenly found myself sitting on the ground with my tailbone aching. I felt my eyes well up with tears and then ferociously blinked them away. "No," I hissed. "No, no, I never liked my life there much, I kept wishing I could go somewhere else, how come this is saddening?" And yet I found myself sobbing on the forest floor, mourning the life I could've had and everything that I hadn't realized I'd been anticipating by had.

Suddenly I sat up and slapped myself in the face before crawling over to my knapsack. I half expected to hear myself mutter the word "precious," I was being so creepily Gollum-esque.

Oh. Not yet. Sorry.

But anyway, I searched through my own backpack and found that the pocketknife had grown into a hunting knife/dagger as long as my forearm. I strapped it into my boot, and then took a look at the rest of the contents of the backpack. The money had changed from pounds and dollars to gold, silver, copper, and brass coins. Everything else had remained more or less the same.

Then I took a good look at what I was wearing. I had on my breeches and boots and flannel shirt and jacket from home, but they had shrunk.

And so had I.

I went back to crying like a little child. A few seconds later, I felt a loud, painful whack on the side of my head and looked up, shocked, to see that Gandalf had hit me with his staff.

"You, Freya, have spent several minutes relaying to me how miserable you life had been, how you have accomplished almost everything you wished to, besides perhaps making up with your mother. You told me that you disliked this 'Earth' that you have told me about and that you wished to come somewhere else so many times. Well, your wish has come true," he said, his voice booming. "Do not despair, or weep. Despite homesickness, you will learn to love it here. I promise. I am sure that you will like life better here in Middle-Earth as a Dwarf woman as opposed to a Human, as you call them, on your 'Earth'."

I smiled up at him. "You're right, Gandalf. Of course, I was being silly. I had forgotten how much I disliked Earth in the heat and surprise of the moment."

He smiled kindly down at my, holding his staff in front of him with both hands. "There, that's much better," he said. "Now come, Freya. Would you like to take part in an adventure?"

"Yes, of course!" I said, knowing exactly which one was coming.

"Well, come then. I have a group of dwarves and a hobbit to introduce you to."

**Next update will come very soon, I have a lot written already. Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the second chapter, guys!**

Chapter 2:

After what seemed like several hours of walking, I began to complain. "Gandalf, how come you couldn't get a cart? Gandalf, how come we have to walk all the way there?" Thank goodness I wore comfortable, Middle-Earthen clothing (and good shoes for walking) or Gandalf would have died of my complaining about discomfort, and then where would the future go?

Gandalf was very patient. "Freya, no matter how much you complain, the Shire will not get any closer. Also, it has only been about forty-five minutes. Now, to take your mind off things, I shall ask you questions you have not answered yourself for me."

"Yes, Gandalf?" I replied grumpily.

"For instance, how old are you?"

"Well, back on Earth, I was twenty-four, which is a mature age for a human, I guess. Not as mature as, say, thirty, but fairly mature. But here...I want to say about sixty-eight. That's about the equivalent, right? From human to dwarf, if you're not of the line of Numenor?"

"Yes, that's correct. Good, this means that you won't be judged as far _too_ young by the other dwarves – but see here!" Suddenly he jumped. "How did you know that Numenor's line of Men are longer-lived?"

"I _told_ you, it's all in these books I've got!"

Gandalf relaxed. "Good," he said. He went on to ask me a long manner of questions, although the age one seemed to be most important.

At last, I noticed that we were crossing into a familiar place. "Wow," I whispered. "Peter Jackson did a _great_ job..."

Gandalf heard me and frowned. "Who is this, 'Peter Jackson'? I thought you said a man named JRR Tolkien wrote these books about our past and future?"

"Yes," I replied eagerly, "But a man named Peter Jackson made films of them..." Noticing Gandalf's slightly blank look (a new thing, to be sure) I quickly clarified, "It's like he told a bunch of people to act it out and...used this sort of special box to record it and put it into a portable thing so that it can be re-watched at will, by anyone."

Gandalf sighed. "It would be best not to mention such things in front of the dwarves and hobbit, my dear. They are far more easily confused than I am, and will get far angrier about it."

And so we reached the door of my fifth favourite hobbit (not that I didn't like him, I adored and adore him, it's just that I like and always have liked Sam, Pippin, Merry, and Frodo better).

Gandalf sent me ahead, and I snuck into Bilbo's house through a back way. Balin and Dwalin were already there, but nobody else, and Bilbo already looked harassed.

I knew who was coming next, and I pressed myself against the curved wall of the hobbit hole, in the shadows. Bilbo came hurrying down the hall on his hairy feet, and he passed by me without seeing me, muttering and complaining quietly about the dwarves. I couldn't really blame him. I could hear them laughing and singing and talking raucously from here.

Bilbo opened the door, and I caught my breath. For standing there, as the door opened, were the two most adorable dwarves I'd ever seen (not that I'd seen that many). On the left, smirking slightly, was a dwarf with fair hair a little past his shoulders that was braided on the sides and, I kid you not, a braided moustache. He had a slightly large nose, but not too bad, considering most dwarves, and kind blue eyes that were sparkling with mischief.

On the right was a much darker dwarf. He had wavy-ish, unbraided dark brown hair that fell just to his shoulders. He had deep, brooding, chocolatey eyes, and his nose was normal! Straight and normal. Instead of a beard, he had stubble about his mouth and chin, back up his cheeks, and down his neck a bit. He wore dark brown leather boots, a very heavy looking leather coat, breeches, and a blue cotton shirt. Across his back was slung a bow and a quiver of arrows, and buckled to his belt was a sword.

"Fili!" said the lighter one.

"Kili!" said the dark one.

"At your service," they said together, bowing. I noticed a silver clip in Kili's hair, at the very back.

"You must be Mr. Baggins," said Kili, his Irish accent mangling the name into "boggins."

Bilbo smiled a very fake smile and said, "Nope, you can't come in, you've come to the wrong house," and made to shut the door.

Kili looked very worried and shoved the closing door back open with his forearm. "What? Has it been cancelled?" he asked.

"No one told us," said Fili, looking rather suspicious and looking between his brother and the hobbit.

Bilbo mouthed the word "cancelled" and then said, "Cancelled? No, nothing been _cancelled_ – "

Kili interrupted him, "That's a relief!" and shoved the door all the way open before striding in in front of Fili.

Bilbo looked affronted as Fili said, "Careful with these – I just had 'em sharpened," and dropped a good deal of weapons into Bilbo's arms.

"It's nice, this place," said Kili, striding past them (and me) into the main hall. "Didja do it yourself?"

"No, it's been in the family for years," replied Bilbo, half turning from more of Fili's weapons as Kili began to scrape his boots on a box. "And that's my mother's jewellery box, could you _please_ not do that?"

"Fili, Kili, come on, give us a hand," said Dwalin, striding in. He was a tall, bald, intimidating dwarf. He grabbed Kili around the shoulders and pulled him into the dining room.

Kili grinned. "Mr. Dwalin," he said.

Fili followed them as Kili slapped Balin on the shoulder (a kindly-looking, white-beared fellow) and someone something I couldn't quite make out, but the end sounded like " – or we'll never fit everyone in."

Bilbo seemed stunned over his armful of Fili and Kili's weaponry and asked, "Everyone? How many more are there?"

Then the bell rang and Bilbo stammered, "No. No, no, no, THERE'S NOBODY HOME!" He dumped the brothers' weapons on a bench and continued to walk toward the door, despite his ramblings on about how there was no one home, how they should bother someone else, and whether this was someone's idea of a poor joke, and if so, they had exquisitely poor taste.

Then he opened the door like a popgun, and onto the welcome mat fell eight dwarves, groaning, while a certain wizard looked over the mayhem. Bilbo looked annoyed and muttered, "Gandalf," as an answer to his joke question.

I snickered to myself the whole while.

Eventually, everyone was situated in poor Bilbo's dining room, with huge platters of food. I listened as the dwarves yelled and laughed raucously, throwing food across the table into Bombur's (the fattest) mouth.

Gandalf finally came out and pulled me into the light of the dining room. Several of the dwarves yelped and stared at me, including Kili.

"My dear dwarves and hobbit, this is Lady Freya. She will be accompanying you on your quest." He shoved me forward gently and I stood there, in front of twelve dwarves, a hobbit, and a wizard, in the weirdest set of circumstances so far in my life, staring down at my boots.

Finally, Kili found his tongue and said, "How long has she been here, Gandalf?"

"The whole time, my dear Kili."

Fili objected, "Then how come were just seeing her now?"

I looked up and snapped, "You know, 'she's' got ears! And a tongue! Why don't you try talking to 'her' instead of through Gandalf! Might make 'her' feel more welcome, eh? As to you question, Master Fili," I said, jutting out my chin, not realising that my blue eyes were glittering, "You would've seen me before now, if you payed attention. I was in the shadows of the entryway as you two came in. You walked right past me."

Fili looked stunned at my sudden outburst, but Kili roared with laughter, and I muttered the word, "Told," which made him laugh harder.

I was ushered onto a stool between Fili and Kili, and one by one the dwarves introduced themselves to me.

There was Bifur, who had an axe in his head, and seemed very quiet.

There was Bofur, a dwarf with an odd hat, a kindly smile, and a strong accent.

And there was Bombur, the fattest, ginger dwarf with the awesomely braided beard.

There was Dori, who looked kindly, with white/grey braided hair and beard.

There was Nori, whose hair literally looked like a starfish, and looked rather crazy, but kind.

And Ori, who was young, polite dwarf with a nicely braided beard, and only a slingshot and a war-hammer that was apparently lent to him by Dwalin.

Balin and Dwalin introduced themselves, but I already knew them.

Then there was Oin, who had a skilfully braided beard and a staff that seemed to be his only weapon.

Of course, after Oin was Gloin, who was a fierce looking ginger dwarf (a darker ginger than Bombur) and had a ferociously braided beard. (The only word to describe it. I kid you not.)

Finally, after going around the table, we ended up at Fili and Kili. "Fili," said the brother on my left.

"And Kili," said the one on my right.

"Oakenshield," they said together. I laughed.

"Speaking of which, when is – " I started to ask, but Gandalf cut me off.

"Lady Freya is not from Middle-Earth," Gandalf explained, shooting me a warning look.

I clamped my mouth shut. I had to look as if I didn't know the future.

"She is not familiar with m_any_ dwarf customs, and would like to accompany you on your quest. Which you will, of course, need to explain to her."

"When Thorin comes," replied Bofur happily before turning to me and saying, "We're glad to have you with us, lass."

"Wait," said Fili. We all turned to look at him. "How old are you?"

I blushed and Gandalf, across the table, mouthed the word, "dwarf," which clearly meant to tell them my dwarf age. "Er...sixty-eight," I replied, surprised as the age sounded natural in my mouth.

The dwarves roared with laughter, even Fili and Kili, who were the youngest. "Why? How old are _you_?" I asked defensively.

Fili pointed over my head at Kili, who said, chuckling, "Lady Freya, I am – was – the youngest of our company, and I am seventy-seven. Gloin's son, Gimli, could not come on the quest this time because he is too young – and he is sixty-two. Fili is eighty-two, the second youngest. Even Ori is older than us."

Despite my pressing, Ori refused to tell how old he was. Kili whispered that he was secretly far older than he claimed to be, around one hundred and thirty-two. I snickered.

And so dinner went on uninterrupted. I got a glass of water and a plate stacked high with salmon, pork, and steak, with heaps of rolls and piles of vegetables and fruit. I at it all down and got a second, almost identical plate. Then I stole a pile of seed cakes from under Bombur's nose – making Kili roar with laughter – and ate that. Then I brought all the dwarves into the kitchen and showed them how to make two things – chocolate cake, and hot chocolate. I made three chocolate cakes (and stole an entire half of one for myself before dividing up the rest amongst them) and four huge mugs of the hot chocolate. I got an entire one, and they fell in love with the rest. Despite the requests, I refused to make more.

When the dwarves and I were finally full, I settled in on my stool between the Oakenshield boys with the final mug of hot chocolate, sipping it happily. I heard Bilbo arguing with Gandalf, something about " – I want them out of my house!"

Then I heard sweet, polite Ori say, "Excuse me, sorry to interrupt, but what should I do with my plate?" At this point, I stood up in the hall, out of the way. I knew what was coming.

Fili walked up to Ori and said, "Here, Ori, give it to me," before chucking it like a sideways frisbee down the hall, past Gandalf, where Kili caught it. More flew down the hall, and each one Kili caught, spun halfway round, and chucked into the kitchen at one of the dwarves – who I'm pretty sure was Bifur – who skilfully caught them without looking and began to wash them. A little bit of music started in the background, the beat of which was the clink of plates being caught.

Bilbo yelled as Fili threw the second plate, "Excuse me, that's my mother's, and it's probably over two hundred years old!"

The dwarves ignored him, and tapped the dishes around.

The dwarves in the dining room were tapping the forks and knives, and Bilbo said, "You cannot do that, you'll blunt them!"

Bofur replied, "Ohh, you hear that, lads? He says we'll blunt the knives!"

Kili immediately began to sing, "Blunt the knives, bend the forks – "

Fili took it up next: "Smash the bottles and burn the corks,"

And the rest of the dwarves sang, as mayhem of throwing and catching of dishes and silverware ensued, _Chip the glasses and crack the plaates, that's what Bilbo Baggins hates!_

_Cut the cloth, tread on the fat, leave the bones on the bedroom mat, pour the milk on the pantry flooor, splash the wine on every door! _

_Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl! Pound them up with a thumping pole! And when you're finished if any are whoooole...send them down the hall to roll!_

They laughed hard, and played more music, sending dishes through Gandalf's smoke rings.

Bofur was playing a flute, and someone (I think it was Oin) was playing a teapot. Do you know how much freaking skill is required to play a _teapot?_

Then they all yelled, "_That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!_" and clinked mugs of ale, laughing very hard. Bilbo shoved his way in, and was astonished to find that all of the dishes that had not made it into the kitchen were in huge, lovely stacks.

I waited a few minutes, for things to die down, then I grinned. "How are you, Bilbo, old pal? We haven't been introduced yet, you were too worried about you grandmother's china."

He gave a strained smile. "At least dwarf women don't eat like dwarf men," he said shyly. "You know, Lady Freya, you...I mean...You don't..." He made motions like a beard about his chin.

I was confused. "What?"

Kili noticed and chortled. "What he means is that you are fairer than most dwarf women. Most dwarf women look more like men. A good deal of them even have beards – but you, my dear Freya, have no beard, not even a hint of one, and by your overall stature and bearing and even hair, one could argue that you looked a good deal like you might be of the race of Men...But there is still dwarf in you. Clearly, for despite all of those things, you are still very dwarfish."

Nearer to the end of his speech, his voice grew softer and his gaze more intense, and I squirmed and was very glad when a knock came to the door.

**Due to a vacation, I'll be separated from my computer until the twenty-fifth. HOWEVER, expect an update on that day. Until then, keep reviewing!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Aand here's Chapter Three! This is simply because today's my last day with the computer 'till the 25th, so I decided to just give you chapter three. Enjoy!**

Chapter 3:

None of the other dwarves were glad about that knock.

They hissed, "He's here! Shh!" at each other, which I found exceedingly odd behaviour.

We all crowded about the door, with me at the back. I found myself more disappointed than I expected to see that Fili and Kili (especially Kili) were in front of the group.

Bilbo opened the door nervously, and in stepped a shaggy-headed, dark-haired dwarf who looked up at Gandalf who said, "Bilbo, this is Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of our company and the king of his people."

Thorin glanced at Mr. Baggins and said, "So. This is the hobbit."

I suppressed a squeak.

Thorin looked back at Gandalf and said, "I got lost. Twice. You said this place would be easy to find."

While they went back and forth between them, and Bilbo interjected (something about painting his door less than a week ago), my eyes strayed to the pile of weapons. I sneaked over to them and picked out a recurve bow and a full quiver of arrows, two knives, a second long dagger, and two sapphire hilted swords.

I strapped the swords to my belt, with the knives in between. I slid the second dagger down the boot that did not hold my original one. I slung the quiver across my back and slid the unstrung bow into it.

I had learned archery before, and was pretty good at it. I had also taken fencing, and something told me (like my instincts about my being sixty-eight) that I was more than proficient with weapons.

Finally Thorin noticed me.

"Who is this?" he asked Gandalf.

"This is Lady Freya Macintosh. She is not accustomed Middle-Earth, and has come here by accident. However, she does not miss where she came from and prefers it here. She would like to accompany you and your company on your quest to Erabor." The wizard cast an eye over my new weapons, as did the rest of the dwarves, but nobody objected, which pleased me. That meant that they were mine now.

Thorin looked between me and Gandalf in disbelief and hissed at him, so that only he and I could hear (although I doubt he meant for me to hear), "My friend, are you mad? I asked for _one_ burglar, who by the looks of it, you did not comprehend my request. One burden is enough, Gandalf!"

My temper flared and I stepped forward and, striving to be quiet, I snapped, "A burden? You think I'll be a burden?" I yanked the bow out of my quiver and strung it in less than a second, nocking an arrow in less time and loosed it. It shot between two dwarves, who leapt aside – but it never would have hit them. It curved around Bilbo and struck the exact middle of his door, quivering.

"I am no burden," I spat.

Thorin stared at me in disbelief before muttering at Gandalf, "Fine."

Then he glared at me and said, "You can use the bow, yes, but how about those swords, hmm? Those knives?"

Without answering, I drew a knife and without looking threw it at a wall. It stuck between two boards in the wall, making me look a little better than I was. True to my inner Katniss.

Then I unsheathed the swords and in an instant had one behind Thorin's neck and one at his throat. "Don't push it, _my lord_."

I shoved him away, sheathed my swords and pulled my knife out of the wall. I parted the dwarves like the Red Sea and yanked my arrow out of Bilbo's door, slipped it into my quiver, and stalked down the hall.

**Sorry it's so short, though. I only had enough time for this, since I wanted to get Chapter Four done so you guys could get something on the 25th. Please Review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Because you people are nice, here's Chapter Four.**

Chapter 4:

I was seated on my stool again with my mug again. I listened as the dwarves discussed the journey to the Lonely Mountain, but not attentively.

I watched with interest as Kili told everybody that "There's another way in," and as Gandalf handed Thorin the key, and finally as Bilbo was given his contract. I was also given one, but I didn't read through it, just signed it and handed it back to Balin, who smiled at me and bid me welcome.

"Give him the contract," grunted Thorin.

Balin stood up and pulled it out, explaining that it contained information pertaining to expenses and things of that nature. He handed it to Thorin, who shoved it over his shoulder into Bilbo's chest.

Bilbo grunted as it hit his chest, and circled out into the hall.

He read through it – ever the lawyer hobbit – and muttered aloud. " – Up to, but not exceeding one fourteenth of total profit, if any..." he made a face, like an I-can-see-that face and continued. "Company shall not be held responsible due to injuries because of or inflicted on journey, including but not limited to... laceration. Laceration? – _incineration_?" He poked his head around from the hall.

"Oh, aye, melt the flesh off your bones in the blink of an eye," said Bofur helpfully.

"Yeah," murmured Bilbo.

"You all right, laddie?" asked Balin.

Bilbo bent over as if winded. "Yeah," he said again. "Feeling a bit faint."

Bofur seemed to take this to mean that Bilbo wasn't understanding him. "Think furnace – with wings!"

"Yeah, yeah, I need that," muttered Bilbo.

"Flash of light, searing pain, and poof – you're nothing more than a pile of ash!"

I sighed.

Bilbo straightened up, stood for a minute, breathed to himself, then suddenly said, "Nope," and spun in a circle, landing sprawled on the floor in a dead faint.

I rolled my eyes at Bofur. "Just so you know, you were _so_ not helping."

"I was trying!"

"Not well, clearly!"

Remembering my performance from earlier, Bofur wisely shut his mouth.

Later, I curled up in Bilbo's living room, having filched an extra cloak and blanket off of Fili.

The other dwarves were standing about, smoking, and Thorin was leaning on the mantlepiece.

Slowly, he began to sing,

_"__Far over the misty mountains cold._

_To dungeons deep, and caverns old._

_We must away, ere break of day,_

_To find our long, forgotten gold._"

The other dwarves joined (you could hear Bofur clearly),

_"__The pines were roaring, on the height._

_The winds were moaning, in the night._

_The fire was red, its flames, they spread,_

_The trees like torches, blazed with light."_

I smiled. I had always loved that song in the book, but I liked Peter Jackson's tune for it far better. And in movie-verse, as this world was, it was of course that tune.

They continued to sing, and I curled tighter into a ball on an armchair and fell asleep.

I woke up in the middle of the night to see Kili tossing and turning and muttering to Fili. They were striving to be silent, or at least quiet, I'll give them that, but they seemed to have the stealth of water buffalos.

I sharpened my senses, closing my eyes to strengthen my hearing.

I heard Fili whisper, " – can't blame you, brother. She's very pretty."

Kili whispered, "Seriously, Fili, stop. That's enough for one, poor dwarf in a night."

I heard Fili's smile as he replied, "Fine, but remember that it's not a _bad_ thing – "

"Shut up." Kili gave an annoyed grunt and rolled over. Clearly this was the end of their conversation.

I smirked. So Kili had a crush on me.

Suddenly, Gandalf stood up, and silently made his way over to my armchair. "Get up, Freya!" he hissed.

I stood up, fastening Fili's – now my – cloak around my neck and rolling up the blanket. I followed the wizard out to Bilbo's front stoop. His shoulders visibly relaxed. He puffed on his pipe a minute before finally breaking the silence.

"Freya, there is something unusual about you."

"If you woke me up to tell me just that, it was a waste of time," I replied tartly. "I was an unusual girl back home, imagine how odd I must be here."

"No, it's not that. And, by the way, I happened to notice you waking up and being awake. As a matter of fact, that is what revealed all to me. You eavesdropped on the Oakenshield brothers' conversation, did you not?"

I was grateful for the dark, because I felt my cheeks turn red. "Er – yes, but why does that matter?"

"It matters because you managed to hear every word, once you concentrated, from across a span of several feet, with Fili and Kili striving to be quiet. And trust me, the Oakenshield line can be very quiet if need be."

"So?" My patience wore thin. It was annoying of him to bring these things up.

"You are not only a dwarf, Freya."

"What do you mean?"

"I revise what I said earlier. Based on your build, and the way you handle weapons, and the other dwarves, you are _very_ special. Tell me, what is the custom dwarfish phrase to begin a meal?"

"Don't be ridiculous," I said, and told him the proper phrase. Then I slapped a hand over my mouth.

He looked at me, a twinkle in his eyes. "Yes, I thought as much. When you woke up in the woods, Freya, do you remember feeling anything other than confusion?"

"Um, my feet hurt...and I felt a sense of loss. Like I'd lost something important."

"That settles it. For several weeks now, I have been informed of a lost half dwarf maiden."

"Half dwarf and half _what_?"

"Human, as you call them."

My mind reeled. "I'm actually from Middle-Earth?"

"Yes, Freya. You are actually from Middle-Earth. And the dwarf maiden that I was referring to had your name. You have been missing for three months."

"But – I've lived twenty-four years of Earth time!"

"Yes, and that was real, too. I stand by what I said earlier, that you _are_ dead on Earth. Only by dying there could you return here. It was a result of a powerful spell. An accident, I believe. On your part."

I swore in dwarfish under my breath, and was surprised by how natural it felt. "So not only am I half dwarf, half human, but I'm also a witch?"

Gandalf nodded, his expression impenetrable. "As far as I can tell, your power works through that jade stone at your throat."

I touched the necklace. It was silver with a jade set into it, and a thin but strong chain about my neck. "I didn't even notice it before," I whispered.

"You powers, I believe, include extensive power over the elements – earth, air, fire, and water. Also, there are a number of other spells that you know – sharpening your senses, heightening your instincts, moving faster and becoming stronger. I believe you can make yourself invisible, too."

I leaned against Bilbo's house. I put my arm out in front of me and curled my hand into a claw, concentrating. A second later, a ball of green-ish fire appeared in my palm, and I lobbed it high into the air before shooting it into sparks with a jet of water from my forefinger. I laughed with delight.

"Hush, Freya!" hissed Gandalf. "It may seem easy now, but what if I were to take _this_!" With one hand, he unclasped my necklace from my neck and held it out of my reach. "Now try."

I concentrated, hard, and brought beads of sweat to my face – suddenly, I felt the sapphires of my swords aid me. The ball of fire, this time blue, appeared, but I extinguished it. "The sapphires helped, instead of my jade," I gasped. "I wish they'd helped earlier."

"Here is what you should do," Gandalf instructed. "You may use either source for your power – until you are in a dire situation, such as if you are captured or on the verge of being captured. Then transfer all of the energy from the sapphires to the jade – you can undo it later – in case you are disarmed. I doubt that they would take your necklace."

I nodded.

"Despite you obvious power and talent, you lack training and control."

"Will you train me?" I blurted.

Gandalf looked down at me gravely. "Your type of magic is different than mine. I am a different type of wizard than you are. My power works through other objects, yes, but without them, I am far from helpless, as you might have been. No doubt you would be able to work a spell without your stones, but only one, and it would be very large – for to lose both of your sources, the situation would be rather dire – and it would knock you out for days."

I sighed and rubbed my head. "Really, Mithrandir, this is enough for one night."

"At least you are coming to grips with your past here," said Gandalf, and I thought he was smiling as he returned my necklace. "Get some sleep, Freya."

**If any of that was confusing, I can explain! Just PM me with questions. Pleeease review!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five:

I woke up, rubbing at my eyes and groaning. "Wake up, sleepyhead," said Kili. I glared heavily at him, majorly annoyed.

"What time is it?" I snapped.

"Six thirty. We slept late today."

I stared at him in utter disbelief. "Not for me," I growled. "My usual wake up time is at least eight."

It was his turn to look at me like I was crazy.

I ignored him, which was easy because just then Bombur then yelled that breakfast was ready.

I sprinted down the hall and slid onto my stool from last night to find a place already set for me, with a plate piled high with all different manners of breakfast foods. I shot Bombur a grateful look – now I wouldn't have to fight thirteen dwarves for breakfast – and began shovelling in the food.

I barely heard Kili complain to Bombur about the place setting for me and nobody else, but I heard Bombur's laugh clearly.

When I was finished and full to bursting, I got up and left them table. I grabbed my knapsack and stuffed extra food in it, including the ingredients for hot chocolate. I pouted – there would be no oven for chocolate cake.

I slung the bag onto my back, and put my quiver crosswise over my shoulder, but fastened it to the side of the knapsack. When that was settled, I slid my unstrung bow into my quiver, fastened my cloak over it all, and buckled my swords and daggers to my belt. I slid my two knives into my boots.

I stood ready outside on the stoop. I heard the dwarves arguing over whose weapons were whose, but Ori managed to slip outside with me. I looked at him quizzically and he shrugged, pulling out his slingshot.

"No need to put it on a pile, it'll just get broken," he explained.

I smiled.

Gandalf escaped the crush of dwarves to come out and speak to me. "Freya, I shall need you to stay behind and make sure Bilbo comes along."

"Why?" I complained. "Does this mean that Thorin took back his decision?" I fought a rising wave of panic.

"No," replied Gandalf, his face and voice solemn but his eyes smiling. "Thorin remains agreed that you shall come with us. However, I have no doubt that you will be able to catch up with us if I provide for you this fellow." Gandalf put his fingers between his teeth and whistled, long and shrill and piercing.

I heard the sound of hooves as a large black stallion rode up. I grinned as Gandalf introduced me to an elvish horse, who, as he put it, "Had remained unnamed, as he was awaiting his true rider."

"How does one go about knowing if they're his true rider?" I asked, awestruck.

Gandalf replied, "If he lets you mount him."

Immediately, I made to swing up into the saddle. Yesterday (was it really only yesterday?), I had been on my way to a "horse thing" as Lily had put it, but it was really a lesson – for other people. I had been going to teach a horse class, so one could assume that I was an experienced rider.

One thing stopped me short. "Where's the saddle?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

Gandalf hid a smile behind his hand. "You must mount him bareback. This horse – and most elvish horses – are not meant to be ridden with saddles."

This made things more difficult, but by no means impossible. I simply jumped.

I leapt up and landed calmly on the horse's back, putting my hand forward in midair to grasp his mane.

I tightened my grip slightly as the horse reared. His front hooves hit the path in front of Bilbo's house as he snorted. He turned his head to look at me with big, brown, intelligent eyes. He whinnied, and I honest-to-god understood him. He said, _Hello, Freya. At last, my true rider has arrived in Middle-Earth._

I stared at him and whispered, "You – talk?"

He snorted indignantly. _Of course I talk. The most influential dwarf-human witch comes to Middle-Earth to be my one and only rider, and you think I can't talk? I am an elven horse, Freya. Most of us can speak to our riders if we wish. _

I sighed. "Okay, that makes sense. But what is your name? I don't think it's right to speak to you if you haven't got a name."

The horse beneath me made a noise that might have been laughing. _I am the relative of the horse Shadowfax, whom you know from Gandalf's future. As a matter of fact, I am his father. _

"So, is he, like, Shadowfax Junior, or what?"

If a horse could smirk, he did. _You are pushy, and impatient. Rightly so, however. Names carry power in Middle-Earth. As you wish, my rider. I go by many names, but you may call me Moonshadow. _

I smiled. An excellent name for this type of horse. Suddenly, I had a thought. "Is that you're real name? The one you go by mostly? How – how would you know about Shadowfax, Moonshadow? You can't have sired him yet."

_But I have, Freya. He, like I did, awaits his true rider – the horses know that Saruman will become evil. He will become swayed be the terrible and powerful Sauron. Therefore, Shadowfax, whose clear destiny is to serve the rightful White Wizard, has refused to bear him. He awaits Gandalf's ascension in rank. Also, the name I usually go by is Onyx. However, yes, my real name is Moonshadow. _

I nodded, feeling a bit faint. "You'll have to wait out here, Moonshadow. I have to stay and wait for Bilbo to make his decision on whether he's coming or not – when he wakes up."

_I will await you out here, Freya. Oh, and do not worry about catching up – no dwarfish pony can outrun me. Not even with a dwarf-human and a Halfling on my back. _

I smiled and leapt off his back, leaving him to graze on Bilbo's weeds. Weeds that, of course, Sam would remove later – but why not give him a head start?

Gandalf waved with his staff as he and the dwarves set out, the dwarves on ponies and Gandalf on a sturdy-looking chestnut horse. I noticed that there was one extra pony, who appeared to be for Bilbo.

I slipped into the hobbit's hole and counted the minutes using Bilbo's mantlepiece clock until I knew that he would awaken. Granted, this was in movie-verse as opposed to book-verse, but I still knew that Bilbo would wake up in around an hour. And so I crept into his room and around his house, tidying up after the dwarves and packing a knapsack for Bilbo. When I was completely finished, I trussed up the pack and laid it by the front stoop with the hobbit's walking stick.

Sighing, I checked the mantlepiece and was pleased to see that Bilbo would be waking up in three...two...one. I heard rustling down the hall and crept toward it. I looked down at my boots – but they were gone! I sighed. I'd made myself invisible. I must've done that when I'd been hiding in the hall as Fili and Kili arrived.

I leaned against the wall and pulled out a golden pocket-watch. I attached its chain to my belt and slipped it into my pocket.

Bilbo came stumbling down the hall. I did a quick calculation in my head. Since I had cleaned up for him, if the hobbit was quick, he could conceivably eat breakfast before having to leave. So I stepped out of the shadows of the wall, making the poor Halfling jump.

"Hello, Bilbo! Good morning!"

Bilbo seemed to remember his conversation with Gandalf about the phrase "good morning" outside yesterday, and thought the better of returning the greeting. Instead, he replied, "Hello, Freya! Where have the dwarves got to?"

"They have left already."

Bilbo's face became a short-lived mask of disappointment before he put on a smile and said, "Well, it's for the best. Why are you still here?"

"Gandalf asked me to remain behind to ensure that you – made your decision." I had almost said to ensure that Bilbo would come, which I could not fathom how that would be bad, but Gandalf had warned me against future telling in any way, shape, or form.

Bilbo, meanwhile, was stunned. "But how will you catch up?"

I felt a pang, deep and resonating. He had said "you," not "we." I struggled with a rising sense of panic. "Whaddaya mean, 'you'?" I asked him, slightly desperately. "You mean we, right? Right?"

The poor hobbit looked a little frightened. "Er, no, sorry. The Took side has been vanquished by the ever victorious Baggins side."

"But you were disappointed when I told you that the dwarves were gone." I had regained my composure.

"Well – yes, yes, I suppose I was..." Bilbo said, taken aback and hesitating.

"Exactly! So – what if your, er, Took side is leading a – er – rebellion against the, um, Baggins side?" I sighed inwardly. This ridiculous hobbit was making me be far more ridiculous.

However, it appeared to work. Bilbo straightened and said, "Yes! Maybe it is! Maybe I should go on this adventure!"

"Yes, yes, that's the spirit!" I said. "Although, if you want to go, you really had better get moving."

Bilbo babbled about the adventure nervously all through his breakfast, and I tossed the dishes into the sink and cast a spell where they would clean themselves and put themselves away.

I pushed him out onto the porch, where he insisted that he had to pack and needed his contract – until he found the stuff that I'd already packed for him. He smiled and thanked me, relaxing.

I placed two fingers between my teeth and whistled, piercing and shrill. Moonshadow galloped up the lane, snorting and shaking his mane. I grabbed the Halfling and leaped up onto my horse's back. I stationed Bilbo in front of me, grasped Moonshadow's mane around the hobbit, and said, "All right, boy. Time to catch up with some dwarf ponies."

Moonshadow did not reply, simply reared and neighed loudly. The moment his hooves touched the path again, he was off like a shot and galloping down the path. I could hear Bilbo squeaking about changing his mind again, but I laughed at him and said, "Don't worry! You'll be riding a dwarf pony!"

He didn't reply, and didn't seem reassured, because his body in front of me was as stiff and rigid as a board. I leaned down over him to maximise Moonshadow's speed, my chin almost brushing his curly hair.

I felt the horse beneath me begin to slow, and I leaned back, pulling on the rope that Moonshadow had conceded to wear about his head and mouth for reins. "Whoa, boy," I said.

He whinnied, _Do not "whoa" me, Freya. I know how to stop running._

I grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. Old habit."

We skidded to a stop. "I don't see any dwarves," complained Bilbo.

"They're just up ahead, you can hear them singing," I replied. "Run up, waving the contract, yelling that you signed it."

Bilbo leaped off of Moonshadow, seeming glad for an excuse to get off of my horse.

He ran ahead of the black stallion, who generously slowed down for the poor hobbit's pace, even running.

I could hear him yelling as he wove between trees, yelling, "Wait! I signed it! I signed it!"

I saw the dwarves pause their ponies and twist in their saddles. Bilbo, panting from his little sprint, handed his contract to Balin, who glanced over it. There was a very awkward pause, and I stuffed my fist into my mouth to keep from laughing.

Finally Balin grunted, "All seems to be in order," and gestured for Bilbo to get up on his pony.

The hobbit shook his head vehemently and protested, "No, no, I'll just keep up on foot, that's fine."

Much to his chagrin, the company began to move on, and Bilbo was flanked on both sides by two dwarves. The caught him by the shoulders – his face was priceless – and lifted him up onto his pony.

I noticed Gandalf looking about nervously for me, and I immediately prodded Moonshadow with my heels. He needed no more telling and leaped forward, trotting to Gandalf's horse's side. Gandalf's smile was full of relief and welcome. "Hello, Freya! Nice of you to join us."

I grinned back. "Lovely to see you, Gandalf." I noticed exchanging of money up and down the line of ponies. Bilbo, on Gandalf's other side, looked confused.

"What're they doing?" he asked.

Gandalf smiled down at the hobbit. "They are fulfilling bets, of course, my dear hobbit. They placed wagers on whether or not you would come." As he spoke, he deftly caught a small moneybag thrown from further down the line. Bilbo looked affronted.

"Speaking of which," I said slyly. "Oi! Kili! We had a bet!" I spurred Moonshadow forward and we trotted up beside the youngest male dwarf.

Looking sour, the prince pulled out one of those small sacks of money and handed me it. "Are the sapphires there?" I demanded.

He looked offended. "Of course they are, Freya! I am a man of my word."

I grinned and went to collect from Fili, Bombur, and Dwalin. Almost all of the dwarves managed to get some money off of Thorin, including me. I rode up next to him and put out my hand. Grudgingly, he grunted and deposited a small moneybag into my palm. I closed my hand around it. "Thanks ever so much!" I said, overly-brightly, and rode back to Gandalf's side.

I let Moonshadow control where we were going and pulled my two daggers from their sheaths. I extracted the four small-ish, deep blue sapphires, two smaller than the other two, from the money in the bag that Kili had given me. I put the two smaller ones back, for later binding with the knives. I placed each of the two slightly bigger sapphires by the pommel of each daggers and grasped my jade and whispered a spell for binding. There was a blinding flash of light, a silent explosion, and the sapphires and daggers were one.

I slipped them back into their sheaths, noticing that Moonshadow was the only animal that did not rear or buck.

The dwarves whipped around to stare at Gandalf, who only smiled and took the credit for the flash. "A simple binding spell," he said. The dwarves looked scandalous (which amused me) and suspicious (which did not).

"What were you binding?" asked Thorin, looking and sounding very annoyed.

"A wizard has his secrets, and a wizard must keep them. Do not fret. It does not affect you."

The dwarves, one by one, seemed to accept this bit of wizardly oddness, grunted, and went back to steering their ponies silently. After an appropriate pause (so that the two events did not seem connected), Gandalf asked sweetly, "Freya, may I speak with you in private a moment?"

He turned his horse to the left, forcing Moonshadow to do so as well, although he did willingly when I stroked his neck and whispered, "Hush."

We strayed a bit into the trees, out of earshot of the rest of the Company. "What were you thinking?" hissed Gandalf, clearly annoyed beyond words. "They do not know that you are a witch! That is the least of your secrets, the most of which being your entire past, which includes your dwarf-human blood! Do not let them know of any of these secrets, unless under dire circumstances!"

I sighed. "Gandalf, I did not know that would happen. I have been gone from Middle-Earth for _twenty-four years_ of Earth time, and therefore I did not remember that the binding spell would create such effects. Oh, and by the way" – I held up the two smaller sapphires – "I have one more binding to do – these to my knives."

Gandalf made a noise of discontent and a face that clearly expressed how hopeless he thought I was, then trotted back to join the group.

I sighed and said to Moonshadow, "Hey, boy, can we go ahead of the group? I want to scout ahead."

The horse shook his head, stomped his front hooves, and snorted. _Of course, Freya. Can we get going then?_

"Yes!" I replied, whooping as he galloped ahead. I loved riding horses. It had always made me feel incredibly, unchangeably free.

When we reached the front of the group, we slowed down a bit to leap over a fallen log. I refrained from telling the others about it, due to the fact that I had noticed that Kili was not paying attention and was looking backwards at Balin, and that his pony was tired and drooping.

Amused, I watched as the pony almost ran into the log and tried, at the last second, to jump over it, just adding to the problems of his rider.

As soon as the pony had hit the log, Kili had jerked forward, almost over the animal's neck and head. As the poor beast reared to try and jump over the log at the last minute, Kili immediately fell backwards, and not having any balance, plopped into the fresh spring mud (it being June).

The dwarf was furious, especially since the pony had cleared the log and was plodding along as usual – without Kili. The youngest of the line of Durin was filling the air with dwarf obscenities, cussing the air blue, as his comrades roared with laughter and teased the beat-red boy.

I smirked and grabbed the pony's bridle as it tried to pass me. Monshadow planted his hooves and I tensed my back, and together slowed the pony until it was walking in place, kicking up mud. My arm began to tremble and I supplemented its weakness with my other, but soon all of my muscles were trembling. Even worse, Moonshadow began to quake. "Stupid dwarfish pony – just as much stubbornness as his master." And Kili was the embodiment of stubbornness.

Losing my patience with the stupid creature, I shouted in Elvish, _"__Halt, stupid animal!"_ It stopped walking, straightening up, stunned.

Moonshadow lunged forward and snatched up the pony's bridle in his teeth, keeping him from moving again. Meanwhile, I spun into a position on the horse that made my back's vertebrae crack and pop in several places and yelled, "Kili, you sorry, dopey excuse for a dwarf! Get your fat arse over here and take care of your stupid animal!"

Just as stunned as his mount, the abashed and humiliated prince sprinted over and took control of the pony. As he mounted, I slapped him across the face and spat, "Look where you're going, and don't count on _me_ to stop that pitiful pony from moving on without you."

With that, Moonshadow let go of Kili's pony's bridle and galloped on ahead as I tossed my braid back over my shoulder and down my back. Moonshadow snickered, _You do realise that that little incident was entirely your fault._

"Oh, shut up," I muttered, and his back shivered with silent horse laughter. I had always had a temper that flared unexpectedly.

Behind me, I could hear the dwarves laughing and yelling encouragement at poor Kili. I refused to look backwards – I wanted to play the part of a haughty and pissed off female – but I imagined that Kili's face was, if possible, redder than before and he was hunched over in his saddle, glaring at his mount's neck and refusing to talk except for an abrupt, "Shut up."

**To anyone who likes this and reads this: I love you! You are amazing! Please review! Also: one thing. What animal, at this point, do you think best represents Freya? This may seem random, but it'll make sense later, I promise. Please tell me your opinions on this!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six:

When we finally stopped for camp, I tied Moonshadow's bridle to a tree (apologising to him profusely, but saying as I'm sure that the dwarves would be confused if I let him roam free, and Gandalf would admonish me) and yanked my pack off my back, settling it onto a good sleeping spot. Suddenly, a shadow fell across me. I looked up and saw a murderous-looking Kili glaring down at me. On his right cheek, there was the red imprint of my hand.

"Come with me," he snarled.

I sighed and stood up, making sure that my swords at attached in their new positions – crosswise across my back. My daggers were still at my waist and my knives were still down my boots. I had left my pack and the quiver of arrows (with my unstrung bow in it) attached to it by the fire.

Kili put a vice-like grip on my right arm and steered me into the woods. When we got to a different clearing, he snapped, "Why didn't you warn me about the log today?"

"You're still sore over _that_?" I asked impatiently. His hand reached up involuntarily to the only slightly fading slap-mark. "Oh...wrong choice of words," I said sheepishly.

"Just a bit," he said dryly, his angry demeanour fading. We both laughed.

"Well, I'm sorry," I said honestly. "I didn't mean for you to fall in the mud, I only meant to teach you a lesson about looking where you're going and taking care of your pony. I meant for him to run into the log so that you would be brought to your senses. And trust me, I did not mean to lose my temper, which ultimately resulted in slapping you, which is the last thing – " I snapped my jaws shut. That's me, Mouth-Like-A-Steel-Trap-Macintosh.

His eyebrows immediately came together. "The last thing what?" he asked suspiciously.

"Um, er, nothing," I said, hoping that boy-ish cluelessness would save me one again.

Unfortunately, I was unfamiliar with Durin Line's stubbornness, and over the next several days the prince would continue to pester me.

I wouldn't have to deal with that until tomorrow, though.

We began to set up camp, and Thorin said, "Fili! Kili! Scout the area, and take the girl with you. And gather some wood for the fire while you're at it."

I fingered the pommel of one of my swords over my shoulder and snapped, "My name is Freya Macintosh, not _girl_, you unintelligent pile of squirrel poo." Or at least, I would've said that, but Kili cut me off at the word "you" and slapped a hand over my mouth as we went to gather firewood.

"You shouldn't talk to him like that," Fili said. "Uncle can be very difficult – "

"If by difficult, you mean having no feeling whatsoever, then yes, he is," I interrupted.

The brothers rolled their eyes and handed me a pile of sticks.

We got back to camp for a rather uneventful evening. It was really very quiet.

Eventually, I fell asleep, with my blanket under me and my cloak over me, hugging my backpack like a teddy bear, with the arrows in my quiver tickling my nose.

Suddenly, I was awoken by a sharp screech. "What the hell – " I exclaimed, in that air of having just woken up, and fumbled for my swords, which were still across my back.

Bilbo asked, at the same time, "What was that?" He scrambled towards the fire.

Kili's eyes broke from me and turned to Bilbo. "Orcs," he said, sounding a bit surprised.

I swallowed. I remembered this scene. I relaxed slightly, knowing full well that the orcs would not bother us tonight.

Bilbo, however, pranced further toward the fire. Thorin, alarmed, sat up fully.

I barely refrained from rolling my eyes at their antics.

Fili, smoking his pipe with a very relaxed manner, said, "There'll be dozens of 'em out there. The Low-Lands are crawling with them."

Kili smirked, only so that I could see. Then he turned again to Bilbo and said, his face taking a look of dramatically dark emotion, "They strike, in the wee small hours, when everyone's asleep. Quick and quiet – no screams – just lots of blood."

"Really, you should do acting," I muttered dryly, fingering my sword's pommel. Poor Bilbo looked terrified as the princes snickered.

Finally, Thorin burst in. "Do you think that orc attacks are a joke?" he snapped. Okay, that was a little harsh. The brothers looked abashed, and Kili looked downcast, like his uncle'd stolen his candy.

The King under the Mountain stalked off to look brooding against the cliff near the ponies.

I finally fell asleep again to Balin telling Thorin's tale of the Pale Orc, Thorin's dad dying at his hand, and the sad, lonely Thorin Oakenshield. I had heard it all before, both from my books, and _The Hobbit_ movie.

The next day, Kili decided to get to work on getting my mess-up, my unguarded-mouth moment, out of me. He would ride up beside me, and at inopportune moments, whenever he hoped to catch me off-guard, he would ask, "The last thing what?"

Finally, the only thing that worked was me getting angry again and yelling at him to let it go. At this point, it was raining, and everybody's spirits were very low.

Someone asked, "Gandalf, can you make it stop raining?"

Gandalf replied, "It is raining, Master Dwarf, and it will continue to rain until the rain is done! If you wish to change the weather of the world, you should find yourself another Wizard."

I snickered. "_Told_," I commented. I was ignored.

Bilbo asked, "Are there any?"

Gandalf started to explain that there were five other wizards, one named Saruman the White, and then the subject turned to the wizard named Radagast the Brown. I smiled. He'd always been one of my favourites, although Peter Jackson had sort of turned him from his normal, nature-loving self to a tree-hugging hippie, which completely went along with his character.

Bilbo asked, about Radagast, "Is he a great Wizard? Or is he more like you?"

I refrained from verbalising my very-much-needed commented of "burn," but it was a close thing.

Later, the rain finally let up, but it was still very damp. Thorin said something about stopping here for the night, and I grudgingly agreed. It was a rather creepy burned out shack.

"We won't be able to make a fire in any way, shape, or form, Thorin," I grumped. He just grunted.

He and Gandalf went off into the shack to have a "discussion." Gandalf was trying to convince Thorin to go to Rivendell, and the dwarf was refusing. Finally, Gandalf lost it and strode out past us, saying, "Spare me the stubbornness of a dwarf!"

Poor Bilbo looked after him and asked, "Where are you going, Gandalf?"

"To seek the company of the only one about here who has any sense!"

"Then seek no more!" I said happily, spreading my arms wide. I was ignored, and I looked quite offended, according to Kili later.

Instead, Bilbo asked, "And who is that?"

"Myself, Mr. Baggins!" yelled the wizard, striding away.

I stuck my tongue out at his back and turned grouchily back to Moonshadow.

And so we set up camp. Oin and Gloin actually managed to get a fire going, and Bofur was in charge of cooking dinner. Fili and Kili, as usual, were put in charge of the ponies. I tried to coax Moonshadow over to them to stay with them, but he refused. I can only imagine how it must've looked to the dwarves:

Me: "Come on, Moonshadow, you're going with the ponies."

Moonshadow: -Plants feet with high-pitched whinny-

Me: "Yes, I get that, but you still need to be with them!"

Moonshadow: -Shakes head and snorts-

Me: "Come _on_, you stubborn horse!"

Moonshadow: -Neighs very loudly and annoyedly-

Me: "FINE! I GIVE UP!"

Yeah, no wonder the dwarves were looking at me oddly when I had tied him to a tree and sat down at the fire, throwing the horse a dirty look.

What actually transpired was this:

Me: "Come on, Moonshadow, you're going with the ponies."

Moonshadow: -plants feet- _No. I don't want to. They're pathetic lumps that are unworthy to be ridden._

Me: "Yes, I get that, but you still need to be with them!"

Moonshadow: -shakes head- _No. It's not happening._

Me: "Come _on_, you stubborn horse!"

Moonshadow: _No, Freya! Let it go!_

Me: "FINE! I GIVE UP!"

Maybe it's just me, but that seems slightly more sane. I think it's less crazy to be talking to an animal that talks back as opposed to an animal that can't.

Anyway, when the soup was ready, mine was gone in ten seconds flat. I used the lump of bread that I had gotten with it to soak up the remaining broth and washed it all down with a long draught from my water-skin.

I slipped my hand into my backpack and fingered the huge slabs of dark, beautiful chocolate that I had stolen from Bilbo's cabinets. I broke a large chunk off and slipped it into my mouth, sucking on it contentedly.

Bilbo, who had hadn't even eaten yet, received his bowl and two for Fili and Kili. I zipped my backpack and strapped it to Moonshadow's back – he didn't mind sleeping with it on. I unhooked my quiver from the pack and hung it like a sash, the strap crosswise on my chest. My swords' sheaths were attached across each other underneath it. On a hunch, I quickly snatched the two remaining sapphires from the bet with Kili, the ones that would go on my knives even as the other ones had gone on my daggers, and slipped them into my pocket.

Finally ready, I snuck over to Bilbo and snatched one of the bowls out of his hand. He jumped before realizing it was me, and then relaxed and sighed, "Oh, it's you, Freya."

I straightened up, pretending to be offended. "Is that supposed to mean I'm not scary?"

"Yes," the hobbit replied frankly. I smiled. The first time he hadn't stuttered out an apology at a comment like that.

We eventually reached the Oakenshield brothers and handed them their soup. Or tried to, anyway.

Kili refused to take the bowl and instead continued to stare at the sea of ponies, silently counting.

Fili took his bowl, ate in less time than I had, and handed the empty thing back to Bilbo, who was trying to eat his own.

Finally, I took the empty bowl of Fili's and shoved Kili's at his chest. "Eat," I said. "Trust me, I've seen you eat. It'll only take a few seconds."

Turned out, I was right. I was soon holding two empty bowls, to which Bilbo's was soon added. And watching Kili eat, let me tell you, is a terribly disgusting affair. I almost tossed up my own supper, and would have, if I hadn't had the willpower not to.

"You are the most terrifyingly nasty eater I have ever seen," I informed the young dwarf.

He grinned with slightly soup-stained teeth. "Thanks," he said sarcastically.

This had all transpired in less than a minute.

Turning back to the problem at hand, I counted the ponies, then asked slowly, "What's wrong?" while knowing exactly what was wrong and cursing myself for forgetting how close we were to this part of the story.

"Well, we were supposed to be watching the ponies," supplied Kili.

"But we've encountered a slight problem," said Fili.

"There were sixteen," Kili continued. I reeled a bit. I hadn't realised how many we'd had. Which was stupid, looking back.

"But now we have fourteen," finished Fili. "Which ones are absent, Kili?"

Kili did some more silent counting and then said, "Daisy and Bungle are missing."

"Oh. That's not good, that's not, uh, good at all. Should we tell Thorin?" asked Bilbo.

"No!" Kili yelled, too quickly.

"Er, no" said Fili gaily. "Best not to worry him. As our official burglar, we thought you might like to come into it."

"Uh, well, it looks like something big babooted these trees," said Bilbo nervously.

"That was our thinking," agreed Fili.

"Something very big," said Bilbo, stopping to stare at a big splintered tree. "And possibly quite dangerous."

"Wait! There's a light over here!" hissed Fili.

"There," whispered Kili as we all pressed against a rock, pointing at an orange glow off in the trees where we could hear laughter.

"What is it?" asked Bilbo.

Kili muttered, "Trolls."

We moved closer towards the camp. I managed to glimpse one troll.

"Yes, definitely trolls," whispered Kili to himself.

I rolled my eyes. "Captain obvious much?" I hissed.

"I do not know what you mean," he replied absently without turning around.

"We have to do something!" Bilbo exclaimed, completely ignoring the two of us.

The brothers looked at Bilbo, and Kili whispered enthusiastically, "Yes! You should! Mountain trolls are so stupid, and you're so small, they'll never see you! It'll be perfectly safe, we'll be _right_ behind you!"

"If you run into trouble, hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a brown owl!" Fili cut in.

Quickly the brothers shoved Bilbo forward, and the poor hobbit trotted off nervously toward the troll camp, looking back every once and a while.

I was quickly being dragged back to the camp, one prince holding onto each elbow and my hands clasped around the three bowls in the middle.

"We can't just leave him!" I snapped.

"Well, we did," panted Fili.

"But he's little," pointed out Kili. "And quiet. He'll be fine. We're going to get Thorin now, so if he runs into trouble, we can catch them unaware."

"We're going to get Thorin now," Fili confirmed.

I rolled my eyes and muttered, "It must run in the family."

We reached camp.

Thorin asked, "Where is the Halfling? What is the matter?"

"Two ponies were taken. By trolls," explained Fili. "Mister Bilbo is currently attempting to take back what was taken."

Thorin asked, "Trolls? Mountain trolls?"

"Yep, definitely runs in the family," I grumbled, crossing my arms.

There was an awkward pause before Dwarlin said, "Come on, lads! Mr. Baggins is in need of our aid, is he not?"

Then there was a roar and a rush for weapons.

I forced Moonshadow to stay, whispering in his ear, "If we get into trouble, run to Rivendell and get them to come to our aid!" I attached my quiver back onto my backpack securely and loosened my swords in their sheaths a bit. I glanced around worriedly for Gandalf, and found him nowhere. Typical.

I slipped ahead of everyone, more to get away from Moonshadow's worried whinnying after me than anything else.

I skidded to a stop beside Bilbo, the dwarves far behind. The hobbit was reaching for a knife with which to cut the ponies free – and was about to be snatched up by a troll. I slapped a hand over my mouth to keep from warning him, and forced myself not to shove him out of the way and be picked up myself.

Instead, rather stupidly, I watched as the trolls argued about the poor, snot-covered Bilbo. Then, even more stupidly, I yelled, "Put him down, you big galoot!"

The troll looked stunned, but his fellows had the great sense to realise that, while I was armed, none of my weapons were out. So the one to the left of me swished his arm down and snatched me up.

"Oi!" I made to yell, but it was more of a gasp. "Crushing – ribs – crushing – the ribs – "

The great ugly thing paid me less than no mind. I was clutched in his fist, and I was glad that my swords were of elvish make (as clearly they were – I had no idea how they'd ended up with the dwarves), because this brainless oaf would have shattered them.

"Blimey, Bill, look what I've cotched!" he said. I suppose that means "caught." Or more likely, "catched," which is not a word, based on these guys' stupidity. I continued to scream (gasp, really) about how the dwarves were coming to save us, and they should really watch themselves, but I don't think they understood me much.

"Can you understand what it's sayin', Tom?" asked the one called Bill.

"Perhaps you should lessen up on th' ribs," suggested the one holding Bilbo absent-mindedly. He was still prodding at the poor hobbit.

"Oh," said Tom, the one holding me. "Right. Sorry, miss," he said, loosening his grip.

I didn't really know what to do after that, considering that I'd never seen or had word of a troll being _kind_, or even remotely close to it.

Suddenly, Kili leaped out of the bushes, holding his sword and looking all majestic. His dark eyes were burning with hate for the creatures, and fury laced his voice as he growled, "Drop them."

"You what?" asked Bill stupidly.

"I said, _drop_ them!" snarled Kili.

I let loose a scream as Tom pulled back his arm and hurled me at Kili, Bilbo following quickly after.

Unfortunately for the hobbit, Bert had terrible aim, and he landed hard on the ground, groaning.

Unfortunately for Kili, Tom had excellent aim, and I bowled the dwarf over. He valiantly blocked most of the blow with his own body, grunting as his back hit the hard-packed dirt. He propped himself up on his elbows and glanced up and down my body, searching for injuries.

"Ribs," I gasped. "Nothing serious." I hesitated a second before adding, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," he replied.

Suddenly, I became aware of the position that we were in – my body pressed against his, and our faces inches away from each other. The places on my body that touched his seemed to tingle and burn. The awkwardness of it hit me a second later, and I felt the heat rush to my cheeks as I scrambled to find purchase on the ground to get up.

Kili smirked slightly at my efforts and suddenly I felt two strong but gentle hands grab my shoulders and pick me up. I was placed on my feet – Kili was up a second later – and the whirling figure of his brother shot past me as they dwarves surged forward to bash at the trolls.

I already felt much better (having the ribs let go of helped), but I also felt like a distraction was in order. The air was a whirl of dwarves leaping at trolls, leaping away, ducking and rolling, stabbing blades, and flying sparks. I took a good, deep, not-painful-at-all breath and slipped my hand into my pocket.

With a tight smile, I knelt and pulled my knives out of my boots and laid them by the final two sapphires. Grabbing a random gem (I think it was one of my swords) I yelled a binding spell.

The yell caught the attention of almost everybody, and the blinding flash (worse than the first one, probably because I used a stronger spell and yelled it) and soundless explosion knocked everybody backward.

I picked up the whole blades, flipped them in midair, and threw each on into a troll's eye. I shouted another spell, making sure they stuck there. I yanked out one of my daggers and threw it into the eye the remaining troll, doing the same with it as I had with the other two knives and trolls. It would remain stuck there for awhile, hampering vision.

With a yell, I unsheathed my swords and started hacking and stabbing at troll-flesh.

I saw Bilbo finally free the ponies, and I smiled grimly. Mission accomplished. I sprinted over to him and ran into him as I skidded to a stop. Like an idiot, I had sheathed my swords – and not noticed the troll hand reaching down for Bilbo that had now settled for me. This was the rude, mean one, Bill. Tom was nicer, I suppose, and the other one, too.

"See here, Bert," said Bill to the other one. I blinked. So that was his name. "I got that girl-dwarf."

"Good!" said Bert as Tom stood in front of them, getting most of the dwarf blows.

Together, Bert grabbed one arm and leg and Tom grabbed the other side while Bill grasped my middle. I winced as one of them jarred a scratch on my arm from hitting Kili's knife belt.

The dwarves were in a mass of manly weapons and stuff while Bilbo was lying rather senseless where I had knocked him over. They gazed up at the trolls, their faces registering with varying degrees of horror at my predicament.

"Lay down your arms, or we'll rip hers off!" chuckled one of them gleefully. I winced. I had messed up the order of the book and movies and entire storyline. Gandalf was going to kill me, if these thugs didn't kill me first.

I gazed down at Thorin, terror filling my blue eyes. For a second he hesitated, and Kili strode forward as if to slap him to his senses.

"Hurry up!" snapped Bill, grasping my torso. He tightened his grip, earning a cry from my lips. The other two started pulling slowly against each other, and I yelled, a raw scream that was filled with terror and pleading. It almost tore my throat apart.

Thorin stabbed his sword into the dirt just as I thought for sure that my body was going to rip apart at any second. My voice was raw and hoarse from screaming, and had given out after the first one, pretty much. The other dwarves followed in suit.

As for me, two of the trolls let go and Bill kept a grip around my ribs. That was when I blacked out.

**Okay, guys! Here it is! I do believe this is one of the longer ones, if not the long****_est._**** Fun. Also one of my favourites to write. Please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

When I came to, I was mercifully bound in a sack on the ground, while a few of the dwarves were turning on a spit. Apparently, Bill had decided that it would be difficult to cook while holding me.

I tried to move my limbs and groaned. I flopped my head back and sighed heavily. Every part of my body hurt, and I struggled not to cry. Ugh, I felt like such a bloody wimp.

Suddenly, I heard a rustling to my left, and saw in my peripheral vision a familiar dwarfish face.

I smiled a little weakly. "Hey, Kili," I whispered. "How's it going?" Oh, gods, it hurt even to breathe.

"Dawn ain't far away, and I don't fancy being turned to stone!" said one of the trolls.

The prince rolled his eyes and made to speak, but just then, Bilbo stood up and blurted, "Wait! You're making a terrible mistake!"

"Oh, here we go," I muttered, earning myself an odd look from Kili. I suddenly had an idea, and reached against the searing pain in my arms for the closest gem – a sapphire on my dagger at my waist. The trolls had forgotten to disarm me.

I quietly whispered spells of healing, feeling the relief wash over my body. "What are you whispering?" asked Kili. The dwarves were still staring dumbly at Bilbo.

I paused in my chanting to hiss, "Shut up," before resuming my healing process.

"You can't reason with them, they're halfwits!" yelled one of the dwarves on the spit to Bilbo.

"Halfwits?" asked Bofur. "What does that make us?"

"Quarterwits?" I suggested in a gasp, another pause in my healing, but definitely worth it.

"I meant with the, er, seasoning," said Bilbo. I sighed with relief as my healing spell finished, and began to work free the dagger that had brought it about. Being bound in sack made it hard.

Bilbo hopped over towards the fire and there was a brief pause. He continued, "Have you _smelt_ them?" He leaned forward. "You're gonna need something stronger than _sage_ when you plate this lot up."

"I _beg_ your pardon?" I asked, playing along. The dwarves all joined in, shouting in offence and objections.

"Shut it, _dessert_!" yelled Bill in my general direction.

"I am _so_ not dessert!" I yelled back, kicking my feet angrily.

"Let the, uh, let the _hobbit_ talk," insisted Bert, leaning toward Bilbo.

"Now," started Bilbo quickly, "The, er, the secret to cooking dwarf..." – he paused – "Is to...skin them first!"

"That would take ages, mate," I said solemnly. I sighed as the dwarves erupted into outrage, cursing Bilbo and the trolls. I decided to simmer down and began plucking at a seam in the sack with my dagger.

"What a load of rubbish!" spat Bill, turning the spit.

"Nothing better than a bit of _raw_ dwarf," said Tom, reaching down at the pile. Kili rolled on top of me, ensuring that I would not be picked from the pile. I bit back a grunt and struggled to keep him from being skewered on my dagger.

"Thanks you," I whispered as Bombur was pulled from the pile.

"Don't mention it," he said, yet again.

Bilbo suddenly yelped, "Not that one! He-he's _infected_!"

"He _what_?" asked the troll incredulously.

"He's got worms," insisted the poor hobbit. "In his..._tubes_." The troll quickly threw Bombur at us. I rolled on top of Kili to avoid being squashed by the fattest dwarf, and therefore the annoying man was taking my spot. So I rolled _over_ Kili and landed on the ground next to him while the dwarf grunted.

"In fact," carried on Bilbo, "They _all_ have. They're _infested_ with parasites, it's all very terrible business – I wouldn't risk it, really." He shook his head, as if to prove his point.

Kili looked incredibly offended. "_We_ don't have parasites!" he yelled. "_You_ have parasites!"

"Mature," I sniggered.

"_Parasites_!" said Oin, along with the rest. "We do _not_ – "

Thankfully, Thorin chose that moment to give the group a swift kick, his face impassive, having finally caught on.

Having caught on from the first, I scoffed, "You guys are bloody idiots. _I_ have parasites! I have parasites so big, even Kili's swollen head can't compare!"

The others caught on.

"...I've got parasites as big as my _arm_," said Oin.

"I've got parasites, I've got _huge_ parasites! Mine are the _biggest_ parasites!" roared Kili, to my left.

"We are _riddled_ with parasites!"

"Yes, we are!"

" – bigger than even _Thorin's_ head – "

"What?" asked Tom, staring down at Bilbo. He looked incredibly confused. "You want us to let them go? This little ferret is taking us for _fools_!"

"_Ferret_?" yelped Bilbo, offended.

_Finally_, Gandalf showed up, yelling, "And may the dawn take you all!" He slammed his staff against the rock he was standing on, splitting it in two.

There was a disgusting crunching sound, and the trolls turned to stone.

I stabbed my dagger through the canvas of my sack all the way, pulling myself free first. The dwarves complained that I would have been unable to do so had I not been unconscious, and therefore the trolls had forgotten to disarm me, but I just threatened not to cut them loose yet and they began to practically worship me.

I yelled to Gandalf, "You're late!"

"A wizard is neither late, nor is he early, but arrives exactly when he means to," replied the Wizard and I grinned.

Thorin, when cut free, went to talk to Gandalf. I was busy cutting free Kili, who grinned at me.

Suddenly, I caught the tail end of Thorin and Gandalf's conversation. "There must be a cave nearby."

I smiled. "A cave?" I asked Kili. I felt like I should know what it meant, but I was still unaccustomed to Middle-Earth.

"Treasure, Freya," whispered the dwarf beneath me as I sawed the last bit of rope. "Treasure."

**Heyy, I'm back! This is a rather short chapter, I'll try and update later in the week. There will be more Kili/Freya later, I promises. Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

In the troll cave, there were hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of gold, silver, copper, and brass, in chests, in the ground, in gleaming heaps. I snickered as several dwarves buried mounds of the coins, jewels, and bits of wealth, for "a long-deposit" should they survive their little run-in with Smaug.

I sighed as I stared at the back of Fili's head. I knew, although nobody else did, that he, his brother, and their uncle would be the ones that would not return. I sat heavily on a mound of gold (which really did hurt) and stared at the cave wall. _And to make matters worse,_ I thought sourly, _I've found myself falling in – _

Right then, Dwalin decided to interrupt by throwing a chain mail shirt at my face. I jerked one hand up and deflected it, reflexively closing my hand around the cold metal links, expecting it to drag my hand downward.

To my surprise, the hand remained semi-aloft, curled around the shirt. I turned, surprised, and found myself clutching a silvery chain mail shirt, lighter than I'd ever seen them made, and exactly my size.

"There, lass, try that on," said the tall, bald dwarf.

I slipped it over the white-ish (not really anymore) cotton shirt that I had exchanged long ago for my very dirty flannel one. The extra clothes in my backpack were only two other cotton shirts and two other pairs of breeches.

Anyway, I stood up and held my arms out, spinning slowly in a circle.

"Big improvement. You look far more ready for a battle," I heard Gloin exclaim.

I glared at him. "Oh, so you think six blades and a bow are a joke, yes?"

He laughed. "Oh, no, lass. I'm only saying that should you let down your guard down for even a second, a goblin could spear you through the heart. That mail should keep you alive, yes?"

"Yes," I muttered.

"Plus, Miss," I heard Ori mumble. "You're down to three blades now, aren't you?"

I sighed. _That_ was true. The two knives and dagger that I had skewered the troll's eyes with were still there, and as the beasts were now stone, there was no hope of getting them out. I had climbed up the three of them and tried to retrieve the sapphires, at least, but I had not counted on my powerful spell-work. They were impossible to detach.

That scared me. I was powerful enough that even I could not undo my own spells. I fingered the pommel my final remaining small blade, my second dagger.

I was just glad that I had been able to transfer the remaining energy from the three short blades to my other gems.

I had already buried all of the gold that I had claimed as mine, including the money from the bets I had made with the Company. I smiled tightly. I would not need it until much, much later.

I heard footsteps behind me, crunching the hard dirt. I knew who it was, but just to prove I could, I unsheathed my dagger and spun on my heel, crunching the gravel beneath my foot. I leaped back into a fighting stance my left arm raised towards its coordinating sword. The point of my dagger kissed Kili's throat as my other hand closed on the pommel of my sword.

I gazed into the astonished dwarf's eyes. "Hello, Kili," I said brightly. I lowered the blade and slipped it into my belt. "What were you coming here for?" I stroked the sapphire of my left sword.

The prince swallowed, rubbing his throat. "I was – just coming over to ask you the names of your swords."

"A bit random, dontcha think?" I asked him, tugging on my earlobe (a personal habit when I'm a little nervous or thinking).

"No," he replied impishly. "Uncle and Gandalf have uncovered two blades of Elvish make for themselves. We do not, of yet, know their names. You should have seen Uncle's face when Gandalf told him it was Elvish."

We shared a quiet laugh together before I responded, "I have been giving it some thought." Quick as a blink, I unsheathed both swords and gazed at them. "Glitterthorn," I decided, lifting the left one. "And Ripplescale," I finished, lifting the right one.

Kili raised an eyebrow. I cast him a grin, then concentrated, bending my power through the swords. The Elvish glyphs for each name appeared on each sword, two glyphs per sword (seeing they were two words compressed).

He gasped, stunned. "How did you do that?"

I leaned towards him and whispered in his ear, "Magic."

I pulled away, and he looked at me suspiciously. "Only Gandalf is magic around here," he said quietly.

"Not so," I replied, raising one finger. "I happen to be a dwarf-human hybrid with magical powers. I am a witch. Gandalf told me so himself. I channel my power through this" – I touched my jade – "And these." I touched my sapphires. I cocked my head to the right. "Basically, through gems that are important to me. I lost half of them in the trolls' eyes."

Kili had to sit down, on my mound of gold. Without him really noticing, I slipped behind him and fingered a lock of his hair. I quickly dropped it as he turned around.

"You mean, Gandalf lied," he said.

I looked confused. "Um, no. I am magic, see?" I touched my jade and forced one of his locks of hair to float in the air for a second before letting it back down.

"No, no," said the prince, unperturbed. "I _mean_, you actually are of Middle-Earth, aren't you?"

I opened my mouth to explain, but just then, Thorin grunted, "Come. Let's get out of this foul place."

I sighed and whispered, "I'll explain later." He nodded as he got up.

"Yes, yes you will," he muttered in my ear as he swept by me.

I pressed my cheek into the back of Kili's jacket. I was still waiting for Moonshadow to show up, but I was sure he could take his time. Riding on the back of Kili's pony wasn't so bad.

The dwarf in front of me turned slightly – I heard his vertebrae crack – and said, "Explain what you were going to say earlier, Freya."

"Why?" I asked, sharper than I meant to.

Luckily, the prince was in a relaxed, laid-back mood. "Because I know little about you, and you promised."

I sighed. It was pretty and sunny today, and we would be stopping soon... "Everyone will be able to hear," I said apologetically.

"Make it rain," he replied simply.

I blinked. "Er – I don't know if I can – "

"Try."

So I let go of one hand from around his torso and grabbed the dagger at my right hip. I clenched my jaw and knitted my brows and whispered in Elvish, _"__Rain, come. Rain, come. Drown my words and slow us some. Rain, come. Rain, come. Drown my words and slow us some. Rain..."_

I chanted this phrase about ten times before I realised that the sky had darkened and that it was raining.

I heard the dwarves groan and complain and ask to stop sooner, but as I had suspected, Thorin growled that we would stop when we had planned.

"There," said Kili. "Was that so hard?"

"Yes," I gasped. The drain on my energy was astounding.

"Well, perhaps you can still talk?"

"Fine," I whispered. I explained, over the pounding rain, everything that I remembered, without leaving a single thing out or simplifying anything.

Kili was silent for a long while when I had finished. I sighed. "I'm sorry. It must be a lot to process..."

"Not really," replied the dwarf. "You are a dwarf-human witch who grew up in Middle-Earth, but as of yet, you don't remember anything. You are waiting for your memory of here to return. According to Gandalf, as a result of a powerful spell gone awry, you disappeared from Middle-Earth for three months of this time, and twenty-four years of your 'Earth's' time. You lived a life there without much colour or spice, and then you died there and reappeared here, where you await your memory to return. It's not that complicated."

I sat there, clinging the bloody prince, and all I could think of was myself. I pressed my forehead against his shoulder blades and struggled not to cry. I reached in my backpack and pulled out my wineskin, taking a quick drought.

Then I found myself singing quietly,

_"__Ho, ho, to the bottle I go_

_To heal my heart and drown my woe._

_Rain may fall, and wind may blow,_

_And many miles be still to go,_

_But under tall tree I will lie,_

_And let the clouds go sailing by."_

Kili heard and twisted as I released my rain spell, causing the sun to shine again.

I started to weep quietly into his jacket.

"Are you okay, Freya?" he asked worriedly.

"No," I sobbed.

He didn't press it. We stopped a few minutes later, listening for something they heard. I was still crying, and the entire Company (minus Thorin, who looking annoyed) was looking at me sympathetically. I swiped at my eyes miserably and leaped off the pony. My ankles crumpled beneath me, but Kili caught me before I fell.

I had no energy to walk, so the dark-haired dwarf calmly scooped me up as something very loud and fast smacked tree leaves and bushes out of the way, and burst into the open.

I forgot my tears and practically choked Kili (my arms were around his neck, and they tightened) as I squeaked, "What the bloody – "

Suddenly, I realised that I was staring at a bearded, dirty man who stood atop a sleigh led by...bunny rabbits.

"Radagast!" cried Gandalf merrily. "Radagast the Brown! What on earth are you doing here?"

I stared at the wizard hippy. He wore pretty much the same clothes as Gandalf, only moss green, dirtier, and covered in leaves. As well as that he had a large drip of bird poo on his grubby face.

The Brown wizard ignored us and said to Gandalf, "I – I was looking for you Gandalf! Something's wrong – something's _terribly_ wrong."

"...Yes?"

Radagast looked stumped. "Just a minute – _oh_! I had a thought and now I've lost it! It's right there on the tip of my tongue!"

"_What_ is he smoking?" asked Fili quietly. I coughed out a laugh, which sounded wet and full of unhappy thoughts. I was still breathing unevenly.

"Oh!" said Radagast. "it's not a thought at all! It's a – " Gandalf, looking far too calm, pulled a wriggling, all-too-real stick insect from Radagast's tongue. "Stick insect!" finished the hippy wizard happily.

Gandalf grabbed his comrade's elbow and led him a few metres away.

I sighed. "Let me down, Kili," I ordered.

"As you wish," he replied, setting me down gently.

We waited a little bit, and suddenly I heard a sharp, raspy howl through the chirping of the birds and the low murmur of the dwarves.

I squeaked involuntarily, reaching for my bow and cursing myself when it wasn't there – Moonshadow still had it.

"Was that a wolf?" asked Bilbo. "Are there – are there wolves out there?"

"Wolf?" said Bofur. "No, that is not a wolf – " Suddenly, a very _wolf_-_like_ creature leaped out of the bushes and into Thorin's sword.

"Then what the hell do you call _that_?" I asked pointedly. "If that's not a giant _wolf_, then what is it?"

"Warg scouts! Which means an Orc pack is not far behind!" yelled Thorin.

I sighed. "Fine. Warg, wolf, same dif."

"Orc pack?" stressed Bilbo.

"Does nobody even hear me?" I grumbled.

"Who did you tell of your quest, beyond your kin?" asked Gandalf urgently of Thorin.

"Apparently not," I muttered, earning a cough-laugh from Kili.

The dwarf king cast the Wizard an angry look. "No one."

"Who did you tell?!"

"No one, I swear! What in Durin's name is going on?"

"You are being hunted," replied Gandalf, which sent a shiver through me.

"We have to get out of here," growled Dwalin.

"We can't!" cried Ori. "We have no ponies! They bolted!"

I sighed heavily, rubbing the salty tear tracks from my face. I placed two fingers between my teeth and whistled, harsh and shrill.

"Great, draw them right here, why don't you?" muttered Fili.

"Shut up," I growled, elbowing him in the ribs.

There was a tense couple of minutes, and then there came the sound of clattering hooves. It got louder and louder until through the bushes burst Moonshadow, breathing heavily and sweating slightly.

Before he even stopped, I was on his back. He reared happily and I leaned back slightly. "I'll distract them," I said.

Kili roared, "You'll do no such thing!" He started forward as if to drag me off my horse.

Without me telling him, Moonshadow pranced away. "No, Kili!" I replied. "You guys have to go. Moonshadow will keep me safe, won't you, boy?" The horse beneath me neighed angrily at Kili, who paled and backed away.

Gandalf looked angry, as well. "Freya, I fear for your safety."

"I'll draw them away from her," said Radagast with a sneaky, freaky look that had me wanting to step away from him.

Gandalf seemed to find the idea stupid and pointless. "These are Gundabad Wargs – they _will_ outrun you."

"These are Rhosgobel Rabbits," countered Radagast. He jutted his chin up at Gandalf, clutching his staff tightly, his eyes glittering. "I'd like to see them try."

The Wizard mounted his sleigh, and with a swish of his fingers and a giggle, he twitched the reins and the rabbits shot forward. "Come on, Miss!" he roared.

Then he was gone.

"Come on, boy!" I shouted to Moonshadow. "Let's go hunt us some Orc!" Rearing again and then plunging back down, my loyal horse galloped after Radagast.

As we rode away, I mouthed at Kili, "I'm sorry."

"We can only hope that they will be safe," I heard Gandalf say as I rode off. "Come! They has bought us time, but they may still find us. We must hurry, if we are to outrun them and find safe passage!"


	9. Chapter 9

I leaned flat against Moonshadow's back, stabbing with Glitterthorn and Ripplescale with both hands and clinging to my horse with my knees. My backpack was against my back, blocking arrows. I had been unable to get to my bow, at the pace we were going.

Radagast had split up with me a little ways back, and I now had half the pack on me. We suddenly slowed down enough to make a transaction of weapons, as we had hit a ditch. Moonshadow carefully cantered into it and out of it. Sheathing my swords, I reached for my bow and shot flawlessly back at the Orcs and Wargs, killing a creature with every shot.

It wasn't enough, though. For every Orc and Warg pair I killed, another leaped up to take its place. I curled my lip in disgust as one of the Orcs actually shouted something intelligible: that I was a woman.

At that, the entire pack hooted and spurred their wolves faster, forcing Moonshadow to run even faster to stay ahead. As we sped on, I noticed the dwarves killing a Warg and its Orc. The Warg's screams turned the pack's attention from me, and I swore.

"Get away!" I screamed to Moonshadow as we rode toward them. I ripped my mail off, thinking that it would slow down my running. I stuffed it into my backpack. I fumbled to keep my quiver and bow with me and the knapsack with him. "Run! To Rivendell! We'll meet you there!" Neighing his displeasure, the horse departed, faster now that I wasn't on him.

I was feet away from the dwarves, sprinting after rolling off a galloping horse. It was _so_ much slower, but it served its purpose. Kili shouted for joy to see me okay, and started to run forward.

I grinned back, and then a jolt of pain spread like a wildfire across my back, and I fell forward, almost onto my face. Before I hit the ground, I thought of my stupidity. What kind of idiot takes off a mail shirt, only to be shot in the back?

**Kili's POV:**

I watched in horror as Freya's face became a mask of pain. She fell forwards, and I could see the Orc arrow sticking out of back, and I remembered seeing her peel the mail shirt off and stuff it into her bag. I swore and put on a burst of speed, hit the ground in a slide and caught her, before standing with her curled in my arms.

I swallowed as she moaned, clawing at my shirt. "Get...going..." she groaned.

"She is right!" yelled Bofur. "We must be going, laddie!"

And so we ran. Fili was beside me, looking worriedly at the pain-filled girl in my arms. "Let me carry her, brother," he said suddenly.

I shook my head wordlessly.

"We need your arrows!" he growled.

I hesitated, then reluctantly handed over Freya, ever so gently. She cried out as Fili's arm jolted the arrow, and I glared at him.

I put all of my fury into my arrows, shooting them with deadly accuracy and killing something with every shot. We were already surrounded, and I heard Thorin shout, "Kili, _shoot_ them!"

I glanced up from the arrow I was firing. Did I just hear...panic in my Uncle's voice? Not possible.

"Where's Gandalf?" someone shouted.

"He's abandoned us!" someone else replied. I heard a racking, cough-like sound from Fili's arms, and I turned to see Freya laughing – or trying to.

"What are you laughing about?" I asked quietly, gently.

"He'll...come. Keep – keep shooting," she gasped, collapsing backwards, senseless again.

"Don't let her talk again!" I spat at my brother, too upset to take notice of his own frustrated expression.

"This way you fools!" yelled a voice that sounded exactly like Gandalf.

"Come on, move!" shouted Uncle, moving toward Gandalf, who stood between two rocks, half hidden. One by one the Company slid down into a crevice.

Thorin shouted, "KILI!"

I spun, hearing my name, and sprinted over, sliding down the rock.

Seconds later came the long blow of horns.

I turned towards Fili, who was still holding Freya, and motioned that I wanted to carry her again.

Suddenly, a dead Orc flew down the hole, landing near my feet. Thorin ripped the an arrow out of the creature's flesh, grunting, "Elves."

"I cannot see where the pathway leads!" shouted Dwalin. "Do we follow it, or not?"

"Follow it, of course!" replied the enthusiastic Bofur.

Fili walked over to me with a quiet, "Good shooting, little brother," and transferred Freya into my arms.

I swallowed as we walked, forcing myself not to stare at her blood-soaked shirt or her senseless, pained expression.

"Hurts..." she moaned, shifting slightly, giving a feeble kick of her leg. Her eyes remained closed as she tossed her head from side to side.

I brushed a sweaty strand of hair from her forehead with a shaking finger. "It hit one of your ribs," I told her quietly. "You're lucky it didn't hit your shoulder blade or spine."

She swallowed and cracked open one eye. "Thanks," she croaked, with a hint of sarcasm. "Not – terribly helpful." She suddenly went rigid with a jolt of pain, and gave a harsh yell.

I bit my lip, looking down at her worriedly, unable to do more than this.

Finally, we broke free of the confines of the pathway, and there was a beautiful, amazing place.

"The Valley of Imladris," said Gandalf. "To the common tongue it is known by another name."

"Rivendell," whispered Bilbo, clearly awed.

Thorin started to argue with Gandalf, but I immediately started walking down the path. Uncle said I shouldn't like elves, but if they could heal Freya, I'd start worshiping them, if that's what it took.

The entire Company began to follow me.

We moved in a line across the bridge, shadowed by a couple angry looking statues.

We all gathered in the courtyard, the others all hostile, as usual, and me just looking for _someone_ to fix Freya.

"Mithrandir!"

We all turned toward a dark haired man walking toward us, hand on his heart.

Gandalf greeted him in Elvish, walking forward. I shifted from foot to foot, impatient.

A horn blared through the air, and everyone's eyes turned toward the bridge, where many horses ridden by many elves came galloping over.

"Move together, form ranks!"

Bilbo and I were pushed to the middle, to protect the three of us. I would normally have been upset, but now...I really didn't care. The hobbit next to me glanced up at Freya worriedly. I didn't try to reassure him.

The elves began to circle us on their horses, staring down at us. The others all raised their weapons, while one Elf turned to face the grey Wizard. "Gandalf!" he greeted.

I clenched my jaw as Gandalf replied, "Lord Elrond!" and then began to speak in Elvish.

"It is very strange for Orcs to come so close to our borders. Something, or _someone_, has drawn them near," said Lord Elrond.

"Ah," said Gandalf. "That _may_ have been us."

"Oopsies," snickered Freya. I glanced down at her, but yet again she'd gone limp.

"Welcome Thorin, son of Thrain," said Elrond as Uncle stepped forward.

"I do not believe we have met," said Thorin.

"You have your grandfather's bearing," said the Elf. "I knew Thror when he ruled over the mountain."

"Indeed?" replied Thorin. "He made no mention of _you_."

There was a long-ish pause, and then Elrond said something in Elvish that none of us could understand.

"What is he saying? Does he offer us insult?" demanded Gloin, leaping forward. Everyone but me and Bilbo began to add more outraged comments, even Fili, until I glared at him.

"No, Master Gloin, he is offering you _food_," replied Gandalf.

The entire attitude of the group changed. Everyone was now muttering things like, "Fair enough," and "I say we take it."

Finally, I could stay silent no longer. I stepped forward, glaring up at Lord Elrond. "She needs medical attention," I growled, gesturing with my chin at Freya.

"Indeed she does," replied the Elf, bending down to inspect her. I involuntarily took a step back.

He arched an eyebrow. "I am not going to hurt her, Master Kili." He snapped his fingers and two female elves stepped forward as he straightened up. "Take her to a room. I will be there shortly." To me, he said, "They will take good care of her."

I swallowed. "Apologies, and all that bloody, useless _shit_, but I do _not_ want to let her be alone with you lot."

I heard encouragement and agreement from behind me, which made me stand taller and straighter. Only Gandalf looked disapproving. Bilbo just looked confused.

Elrond looked amused. "Very well, you may go with her."

The two elves he had ordered forth came forward to take Freya away from me, but I growled and hugged her closer to my chest. They simply shrugged and gestured for me to follow them.

**Freya's POV:**

I woke up out of my haze of pain to find myself in a bed, with Kili sitting next to it. I blinked and swayed as I raised my head off the pillow a bit, muttering, "Am I dreaming? Please don't say that I'm dreaming..."

"You're not," replied the prince sitting next to me. "Lord Elrond has healed your arrow wound, and you are now in Rivendell."

"Wrong chronological order," I muttered.

Kili ignored me and fiddled with his coat, avoiding my eyes. "I'm starting to regret – er, being rude to – him," he muttered.

I looked horrified. "_What_ did you say?" If there was _anything_ I had learned from reading _the Hobbit_ and _the Lord of the Rings_, it was that you do _not_, under any circumstances, be rude to an elvish host.

"I – er – sort of – long story," he stammered. "I'm – er – glad you're okay."

I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "Never mind," I growled.

"He has been worrying by your bedside for a half an hour now," said a cool, calm, calculating voice that could only belong to a female elf. I glanced up as she stepped out of the shadows.

"Has he now?" I asked, sending an amused look at the blushing dwarf.

"Er – well – I was _very_ worried," he said.

I grinned. "Well, Mr. Very Worried, I'm feeling much better now, so why don't you lead me to the other dwarves?" I started to get up.

Far from what I expected, he literally turned his back on the bed, his very _ears_ turning red. He refused to speak. "What?" I snapped.

Another female elf stepped forward. "This _is_ your own fault, you realise," she said to Kili. "You wanted to carry her here and stay by her side."

"What's going on?" I asked.

One of the elves gestured at me. I looked down and then dove beneath the covers. "Clothes," I yelped. "Get – Me – _Clothes_!"

I sighed for about the fifteenth time in an hour. The elves had given me my pack, Moonshadow having already arrived, but they refused to let me dress as if I were sleeping outdoors. So they had put me in a deep blue dress that matched my eyes, while Kili, blushing fiercely, had left to go tell the dwarves that I was okay.

He had come back within five minutes.

So now I was walking down the hall next to him, struggling not to trip in the pale blue sandals or the hem of my dress, towards the dining area. The elves had consented to let me keep my swords on my back, but I had had to leave my mail (fat lot of good it had done me) and my dagger behind.

I saw the end of the corridor up ahead, and I slowed to a stop. Kili looked inquiring, but allowed the stop, twiddling his thumbs. I glanced down. The dress was a little more low-cut than was my usual style, but nearly so much as to be immodest by my standards. However, I was sure that the style of it, regardless of its low-cut-ness, would be more than enough to knock these male, female-deprived dwarves backwards a notch. Which made me highly uncomfortable, as I was thinking of one dwarf in particular, who had been practically blown off his feet.

I smoothed the front of the dress nervously, wiping my palms at the same time. Then I took a deep breath, and propelled myself forward, brushing an imaginary strand of my wet, freshly-bathed hair out of my face.

I stepped out, over the threshold, into the open-air dining area. I noticed that the dwarves were less than happy about the food.

"Try it," insisted Dori to Ori. "Just a mouthful, you might like it," he reasoned to his younger brother.

I fought laughter as Ori replied stubbornly, "I don't like _green_ food."

Dwalin looked upset. "Where's the _meat_?" he asked, rooting in his salad as if the elves had hidden it underneath the lettuce.

Gloin glared at a mushroom on his fork.

"Do they have any chips?" inquired Ori.

I gave into the impulse to giggle, drawing attention to me and Kili. Thorin looked suspicious. "Where have you been, nephew?" He took account of my wet hair, and his eyes widened with horror, looking between me and his nephew.

"No – " started Kili, but I cut across him:

"Wait – you think – _no_! Get your mind outta the ditch, my friend! I took a _bath_ after getting my _wound _healed while _Kili_ came down here, before I got dressed! Seriously, I may not be extremely proper, but I'm not – no! And you should think more of your nephew, too, Mr. Messed-Up-Mind," I said, struggling to breathe through giggling, an impulse when talking about...things of that nature.

"Yeah," Kili agreed, grinning. "What she said."

I slapped his shoulder, and then promptly tripped over the hem of my dress and would have fallen if not for him.

It was then that the dwarves saw the dress. I blushed at a very enthusiastic response that I looked lovely, yada yada. Kili pulled out a chair for me, and I sat down, eating everything on my plate despite its green colour.

While we ate, Elrond informed Gandalf and Thorin that their swords' names were Glamdring (Gandalf's) and Orcrist (Thorin's). Gandalf's meant Foehammer, and Thorin's meant Goblin-Cleaver.

Bilbo unsheathed his own little sword slightly, frowning at it.

"I wouldn't bother, laddie," Balin said sympathetically. "Blades are named for the great deeds they do in battle.

"What, you think my sword's never seen battle?" asked Bilbo, more confused than offended.

"I'm not sure it's even a proper sword," replied Balin. "More of a – well, a letter opener, really."

I would have snorted at Bilbo's face if I hadn't been sucking on a rather unpleasant mushroom, searching for the right time to swallow it whole without anyone noticing.

When the meal was over, Elrond asked to speak with Gandalf and Thorin and a few others about the map. I stayed behind with Fili and Kili.

I disappeared for a short time to change into my normal clothes, leaving the dress and shoes for the elves to deal with and walking back barefoot.

I curled up in my blanket, bunching up my cloak for a pillow and tucking my backpack near my stomach. With my stomach full, feeling clean for the first time in weeks (as the elves had cleaned all of my travelling clothes), I felt very comfortable. Pressing my cheek into my cloak, I cracked open one eye.

Kili gazed down at me, an unidentifiable expression on his face.

"What?" I asked.

"Can you teach me that song you sang this morning?"

Was it really only this morning? "What song?"

"The one you sang...before you – "

"Oh, right," I interrupted. I had no desire to have him refer to me bursting into tears. It was embarrassing enough as it was. "It goes like this:

_Ho, ho, to the bottle I go_

_To heal my heart and drown my woe._

_Rain may fall, and wind may blow,_

_And many miles be still to go,_

_But under tall tree I will lie,_

_And let the clouds go sailing by._"

He smiled and sang it back to me. "Good!" I said.

"It sounds sad," he commented.

"A bit," I said. I settled back in and sang it again.

"Do you know any other songs?" asked Kili curiously.

"Several," I replied, chuckling. "Not many that can be sung without accompaniment, but still." I swallowed and sang the song that Pippin sang to Denethor in _The Return of the King_, the movie:

_Home is behind, the world ahead,_

_And there are many paths to tread._

_Through shadow, to the edge of night,_

_Until the stars are all alight._

_Mist and shadow, cloud and shade,_

_All shall fade._

_All shall...fade._

"That one is even more sad," murmured Kili. I sighed and sang it again softly. The two of us were settled at the edge of the dais, with all the other dwarves elsewhere on it, and no one was near enough to hear what we said or see what we did. Why that struck me at that time, I had no idea.

Hesitantly, Kili placed his hand on my shoulder. I longed to stay awake, as if I was watching a movie, and was falling asleep, but wanted to see how it ended. And so, as Kili parted his lips to speak, I placed one finger over them, shorting out his words. "Tomorrow," I whispered, blinking tiredly.

He captured my hand and brought it back to his mouth, kissing the back of it. "Yes, Freya," he replied softly, letting me drift off to sleep.

**Fine, people. Here. Please Review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**F-Bomb in this chapter, I thinks. And some rather odd bits you might not like.** XD

Chapter 10:

I opened my eyes to Kili shaking my shoulder. He smiled rather tenderly down at me (causing my insides to melt into goo), saying softly, "Wake up, Freya. Uncle wants to leave soon."

I shoved myself up onto knees, my hands packing everything up without my ordering them to. I swung my knapsack onto my back, and attached my quiver to it. I went to get Moonshadow, ending up meeting the others of the Company on the pass with which we were "leaving" Rivendell. I called it escaping. I mounted Moonshadow and together we trotted up beside Kili. I slapped the horse on his neck as he flattened his ears at Kili, growling like a wolf. "Behave!" I told him, laughing along with the dwarf beside me. I was highly disappointed when Kili was called forward by Thorin, and I guess it showed when I sighed dejectedly, because Fili came up beside me

"Hello, Freya," he said nonchalantly.

I smiled down at him (a new experience, seeing the top of his head), knowing as I had over the past few days that I had made an invaluable friend in Fili Oakenshield. "Whatcha doin'?" I asked him.

"Just wanted to talk to you," he replied, and judging by his furtive glances around, he didn't want anyone else to know.

"About what?" I asked curiously.

"Freya," he began bluntly, "If you wish to make your feelings known to my brother, you will have to be _far_ more obvious – abrupt even. He is a clueless idiot sometimes, and you need to tell him _exactly_ what's going on if you expect him to get the hint."

I reeled at the change of subject. "What makes you think – " I began to demand.

Fili's voice cut across mine. "That little sigh, for one thing. Not to mention the way you were interacting last night. Your body language is deafening, to say nothing of his."

I blinked, long and slow. "Well, thanks for the advice, Fili my lad, but let's not all jump to conclusions, m'kay?"

"I'm not 'your lad,'" said the indignant prince, "Considering that I am a good several years older than you!"

I rolled my eyes. "Never mind."

With that, the conversation dissolved into teasing and poking fun at each other. But I honestly did not forget his advice. At all.

When we stopped for a bit of rest, it was almost dark, and we were at the foot of a mountain of some sort. I pulled Moonshadow aside to speak with him, as I hadn't for days.

He nuzzled the top of my head. _I have missed you, little one._

I smiled at him. "And I you, Moonshadow."

_We are going to have to part soon. I can see it in your eyes._

"Yes. I cannot take you to the goblin mines."

_You see the future?_

"No. I have...books, from my world, that tell me the future of many things – "

_Ah, yes. Those books. _I must have looked confused, because he said, _Remember, you are _my _rider, and therefore I know your mind. It was opened to me when you first mounted up._

"Can we communicate mind-to-mind?"

_Yes. It will be rather like this. My voice will sound the same. Really, I have been speaking to you with my thoughts all this time._

I smiled at the implications, of the ease talking would be. "Well, I'll try it later. But now, Moonshadow, back to the point. You _have_ to get away. I'm not going to take you to the goblins to be torn apart!"

_I will meet you at the giant man's home. Beorn. You will be there in about four days, I believe, according to your book._

"A lot has changed since the book," I said dryly. "Still, yes. Here." I gave him my pack, with my arrows and bow. I kept my wine- and water-skins, slinging across my body like sashes, which is how I usually wear a quiver or a bow. My swords were still making an 'X' across my back, my dagger still down my boot.

He took the burdens willingly, and I secured them to him. _I will miss you, yet again, little one._ He stamped his foot angrily. _We will not spend much time together at Beorn's, will we?_

"We will," I whispered reassuringly, patting his muzzle.

If he could have smiled, he would have. _All right, then. Do not forget too much, and remember what shall happen next! It will keep you from getting into too much trouble._

"I haven't read the books in awhile, and the movie is hard to remember," I told him softly. "But I will do my best. Run, Moonshadow. Look for me in the west on the fifth day as the crow flies."

_I will,_ he replied, then galloped off, kicking up clods of dirt as he sped away in the direction of Beorn's. I knew he would get there before tomorrow dawned.

I sighed and went to sit by Kili. "What was that about?" he asked.

I looked at him strangely. "Have I not told you of my relationship with my horse?" I asked.

He shook his head slowly. "No."

"Well, it is complicated. I will explain later." For at that moment, Thorin was coming down the mountain.

"Come! We move!" he called. The dwarves clambered to their feet amongst a clink and crash of armour and weapons, grumbling.

We had been climbing for awhile, our hoods up, as the rain poured down on our heads. I had been so tired, I had almost lost my footing three times, and three times Kili had saved my life.

Suddenly, we became aware of thundering booms and crashes as part of a mountain nearby peeled itself away from the rock. "This is no thunderstorm!" yelled a dwarf (Balin, I think). I didn't feel like taking my eyes off the ledge to look for who it was. "This is a thunder-battle!"

I closed my eyes for a second, then opened them and watched as the stone-giants battled each other. They were so big, everything looked as if it were in slow-motion.

"Bless me, the legends are real!" breathed some dwarf near me. Again, my own survival mattered more than knowing who it was. "Stone-giants! Actual stone-giants!"

Suddenly, the mountainside we were standing on split in half, with me, Bilbo, and Fili on one half (with others) – and Kili on the other, with Thorin. I screamed, a real, hoarse scream as Kili and I were separated.

I closed my eyes tightly, struggling not to vomit and clinging to the wall behind me and Fili on my left side. I breathed heavily as Fili said, "Hold on, Freya!" We were approaching the wall.

As we made impact, everyone on our ledge leaped forward onto the next ledge, and then our giant fell away. I heard Thorin yell, "No!" Clearly he thought we were dead.

I closed my eyes, not having the energy to move – and then Bilbo stumbled past me. He was going towards the edge. I lunged forward to catch him, but his momentum pulled me over, too. I shrieked as I clung to the wall with one hand, directing Bilbo to a handhold with the other.

Above me, I saw Kili come running around the corner after Thorin. Said King pulled Fili to his feet and hugged him, clapping him on the back and grunting, "Dammit, boy." Kili embraced his brother wordlessly, then looked about for me.

I kicked my feet, struggling for the breath to call out. Finally, I managed to shout, "Kili!" before losing my breath and almost falling.

Luckily, it was enough to get his attention. He spun and cried out, seeing me. He knelt on the edge and reached over, clutching for my hand. With the remainder of my strength, I pushed Bilbo up by his callused hobbit feet, and Thorin caught him, pulling him up and tossing him at Bofur, who caught the burglar, looking more than a little stunned.

Meanwhile, my hand had slipped, and caught on a rock. I whimpered as the sharp edge dug into my palm. I took a deep breath and swung with my other hand to grab Kili's. The dwarf dragged me up, and collapsed back into the wall, engulfing me in a hug. I buried my face in the crook between his neck and shoulder, not wanting to move. Kili stood up, not letting go of me as I shook slightly. I had a horrible fear of heights.

I was brought back to reality, however, when Bofur said breathlessly, "I thought we'd lost our burglar!"

Thorin growled, "He has been lost ever since he left home. He should never have come."

I straightened, bristling. "Oh, yeah? He's been a hell of a lot more useful than a lot of you dwarves! Who got you out of the mess with the trolls? He did! Who's gonna – "

Thorin cut me off, and it's a good thing he did. I would have gone on and on about what the hobbit was _going_ to do, not what he _had done_. Which would have been very bad. "You, too, girl. You have been nothing but a burden as well."

I peeled myself out of Kili's arms and grabbed the front of Thorin's jacket. "Nobody – calls – me – a – burden, you bloody idiot. I am _not_ a burden, and neither is Bilbo! Who saved your bloody butts with the trolls? _Bilbo!_ Who got the orcs off your trail, and then got shot because of it? _Me!_ Get a clue, Mr. 'King under the mountain.'" I made air-quotes with one hand, holding onto the front of his coat with the other while the dwarves looked on, speechless. "Do not call me or the hobbit a burden. Especially after both of us almost just _died_ because of your idiotic idea to come up here in the fucking rain instead of waiting for the Wizard!" I shoved the King away from me, towards his wordless followers. I stormed past him into the cave, sneering at him as I went and dragging the hobbit with me.

We all went into the cave. Dwalin's voice echoed, "Looks safe enough."

Thorin grunted, still clearly miffed about my second sass-attack on him. "The insides of a mountain are seldom unoccupied." Dwalin took a lamp and lit it, spreading light all around them.

Gloin dropped a pile of wood onto the floor and blew into his hands. "Right, then, let's get a fire going."

"No fires," ordered Thorin. "Not in this place. Get some sleep. We move on at first light."

Balin trotted over to stand by him, firmly reminding the king, "We were supposed to remain in the mountain until Gandalf returns. That was the plan."

"Things change," replied the annoyed dwarf. "Bofur!" he called. "You take first watch."

Inside the cave, we all settled down, me and Kili in a secluded corner. I didn't even notice, I was so tired.

Bilbo came over quickly. "Thanks, Freya," he murmured. "That was – really nice, you standing up for me out there."

I smiled tiredly at him. "Don't mention it."

As he left, I yawned. Now that my adrenaline rush was over, I was exhausted. I was asleep in minutes.

I opened my eyes after only a few minutes (Bofur was in the same position, that's how I knew) to find my face buried in Kili's hair. The dwarf had his hand clutched in my shirt under my cloak, and he was snoring softly. I was completely engulfed in his arms, my own hands pressed against his chest. I smiled slightly and nudged his shoulder with my middle finger.

"Wake up, sleepyhead," I whispered into his ear.

He stiffened, then relaxed. I could feel his eyelashes on my cheek as he opened his eyes. "Kili?" I asked quietly.

"Yes?"

"What you were going to tell me about in Rivendell – "

"Later," he replied. "I have a bad feeling about this place. We need to get some sleep."

I nodded reluctantly.

"One thing first," he whispered.

"What?"

"Is my head really that big?"

I paused for a moment, trying to remember what he meant... Then I recalled that I had said about my parasites to the trolls. "Oh. No, not _really_."

"Good. Just checking."

A little while later, I awoke to find the two of us in the same exact position. I snuggled closer to the dwarf, feeling luckier than I had ever been in my entire life.

Just then, I noticed Bilbo sneaking out. I gently extracted myself from Kili's hold and edged over to Bilbo. "Just where are you going?" Bofur demanded, revealing himself from his spot against the wall. The hobbit had clearly forgotten that he was on watch.

"I was just about to ask the same thing," I whispered, and Bilbo jumped and turned to see me right behind him.

Bilbo looked back and forth between me and Bofur, then huffed. "Back to Rivendell."

Bofur looked shocked, lifting himself from the floor. "You can't turn back now! You're part of the company!" he insisted, looking back and forth between me and the hobbit in alarm. "You're one of us!"

"But I'm not though, am I?" Bilbo sighed. He looked at me, and began to explain. "You're a fighter, Freya. You have Kili." He nudged his head towards the prince, and I felt my cheeks redden slightly. Why were they doing that? "You belong here, not me."

I pouted at the actual threat that he was leaving.

"Thorin said that I should never have come – and he was right. My true place is at Bag End: I don't know what I was thinking...I should never have run out my door..."

"You can't just leave Bilbo!" I said, grabbing his arm. I was genuinely upset at the very thought that me might leave. "You can't leave us. We're all in this together." I winced inwardly at the sappy sounding _High School Musical_ quote. God, I had always disliked that movie. I'd seen at my cousin's house in the United States once, and made her cry by telling her that it sucked. I still felt bad a bout it.

"You don't need me," Bilbo said quietly, pulling me back to reality as he removed my hand from his arm and sighing. He was clearly fighting jealousy (causing my eyes to narrow) as he said, "Kili...and the others...can look after you far better than I ever could. You'll be fine."

"But you're our friend! Friends don't leave friends behind," I insisted.

"You're homesick," Bofur tried to persuade him. "I understand – "

"No, you don't." Bilbo's voice became high with irritation. "No, you don't understand, and how could you? You're dwarves!" He gestured at the inside of the mountain. "Y-You're used to this kind of life, one the move, never sticking to one place or belonging anywhere!"

"Bilbo, _stop_ that!" I slapped his shoulder, shocked that he would say such cruel things.

Bofur's face dropped. His eyes were sad and pained, his shoulders slumped as he stood beside me. Bilbo looked like he regretted what he said, but it was too late to take it back.

"Alright, I'm sorry. I-I didn't –" he cleared his throat and looked at his feet.

Bofur nodded slowly, the ears on his hat flopping about. "No, you're right." He turned to regard his kin, most of them snoring far louder than Kili's soft snuffles. "We don't belong anywhere." His voice was rough with grief and pity. "I wish you all the luck in the world," he said, turning back to the hobbit with a genuine, albeit sad, smile. "I really do."

Bilbo returned his smile, then turned to me. "Freya -"

"Just go, Bilbo," I growled. He reached out to squeeze my shoulder, but I turned away and started to pick my way back to Kili's side.

"Come on, lass," said Bofur encouragingly, trying to get me to say goodbye.

With no hope, Bilbo started towards the passageway, before he stopped to turn. "I never thanked you," he mumbled. "For being my friend. For standing up for me to Thorin." He glanced at Kili, and for a second (a brief second, but a second nonetheless) his face turned hard. Then he turned back to me. "I wish you every happiness and hope we meet again, Freya."

I scrubbed at my eyes wearily, stopping a tear from falling as the hobbit started to leave. But that wasn't why I called his name. I swore silently to myself, seeing a blue glow from his short sword, and then asked, "Bilbo?" He spun to smile at me. I nodded at his weapon. "What's that?"

Bilbo gazed down at it in confusion. I could hear a rumbling quaking sound, and I dove towards Thorin.

"Thorin!" I hissed. "Thorin, listen!"

The king's eyes flashed open. He looked startled to find me at his side. He listened for a second, then sat up straight. "Wake up," he roared. "Wake up!"

The dwarves jerked awake as the clunking sounds got louder. I lunged at Kili. His hand clasped his sword and he wrapped my cloak around me, clutching me to his side with one arm and clinging to his sword with the other. A second later, a panel in the floor beneath us opened, pouring all of us down into the depths of the mountain along with the rest of the company.

I heard a grunt from behind me as we hit something hard. Then we began to slide at a heated pace down a smooth surface. I was crashing amongst them, pinned to Kili's side and perfectly happy with it.

Then we were falling through the air as the light changed to a fiery colour, and then we all landed in a heap with much crashing and yelling and groaning. Bilbo landed on top of me, and I groaned. He rolled off of me, and I heard him apologising before rolling off of me. Then a huge swarm of creatures began to run towards the pile of us. Many of us tried to fight (including me) but there were too many, and each of the dwarves were yanked away as the goblins searched the pile.

I glanced backwards and saw Bilbo, untouched and unharmed. I nodded to tell him to lie low, praying that he didn't follow us because of me. If he did, history would be messed up completely in Middle-Earth (although it would be best for Frodo, I suppose).

The goblins smelt foul, and looked even more disgusting up close than in the movie. The cold, clammy hands of my specific captor held my arms behind my back with an occasional jerk to let me know to behave.

We were led further along the path. Suddenly, I felt my clothes being tugged at. I shouted at them, disguising a spell to hide my dagger and my necklace in the yell. The nasty creatures unbuckled my swords from my back and tossed them into a pile with the others. One of the ugly things shoved my forward, and my hair flopped into my eyes. I glanced up and saw the Goblin King stumbling from his seat, crushing smaller goblins, and hovering above the company.

"Who would be so bold as to come armed to my kingdom?" he bellowed. If his footsoldiers were ugly, he was positively repulsive. He was huge, with a crown on his head and two large eyes that searched the group. And his chin – don't even get me started on his chin. It was large and bulbous, hanging down in a really nasty, disgusting way. "Spies?" continued the creature. His voice gained volume as he went on and his paranoia grew. "Thieves? Assassins?"

A smaller goblin informed his king that we were dwarves. I breathed a silent prayer of relief that they had not yet noticed that I was female, due to my – ahem – boy-ish outfit.

"Dwarves?" the Goblin King asked, surprised.

"We found them on the front porch," replied the goblin, poking Ori with his fat finger, causing the poor dwarf to squirm.

"Well, don't just stand there!" roared the Goblin King. "Search them!"

A group of the little nasties surrounded me. Quick as a blink, I unsheathed my dagger and started hacking at limbs.

The first of the disgusting things to reach me began to climb my leg, and I kicked him off with a yell of disgust, slicing off one of his fingers with the little blade and sending him away howling.

Then all of his little friends ganged up on me, wrenching my dagger out of my hands. They all pounced, groups of them sitting on my arms, legs, and even holding down my head, my having bitten a couple of the horrifyingly disgusting things.

"Search them!" roared the Goblin King, yet again. The goblins surged forward, and in a yell of terror I disguised a spell to take my dagger from them and hide it again in my boot, so they wouldn't find it, doing the same also for my necklace.

"Back!" hissed the captain of the group assaulting me. He squatted on my stomach. "I am leader. I will search pretty girl." He smiled at me, and I shuddered at that smile.

He began to search me, all over my body. I yelled with disgust. I shouted and tried to throw him off as he patted down my torso and legs with his scabby, boil-covered hands, pretending to search for weapons. I screamed abuse at him, and in response he lingered more over the places that I yelled at him the most for. I could hear Kili roar in anger, "Get your filthy hands off her!" but there were too many things on him to come to my aid. I could hear nothing of the other dwarves.

When the captain was done, he stroked my chin and whispered, "Such a pretty thing...perhaps His Majesty will let us keep her, boys." There was an uproar amongst the goblins around me, and I thrust my knee up into the captain, in a very painful spot.

"Payback," I spat, kneeing him there again as I stood up, throwing the things off of me, taking advantage of their disturbing excitement.

The captain looked at me murderously. "Stupid girl," he growled. "Take her down!" he yelled.

His group attacked me with more force, and I earned a slice across the cheek and several bites up and down my arms for my troubles. The captain again sat on my stomach.

He placed his finger on my collarbone, petting it in swirly patterns that made my stomach heave and twist. It was just so _wrong_. He whispered, "I promise, if I can, I shall keep His Majesty from breaking you, just yet. I shall keep you for myself, yes. We are going to do _so_ much together, girl."

I tried to throw him off, but the goblins wouldn't take the same bait as before. I closed my eyes, feeling that disgusting creature crouched on my stomach, his cold, clammy hand stroking my collarbone, and waited for him to become ambitious and plunge his hand a little lower –

And then there as a roar above me, and I opened my eyes to find that Kili was suddenly filling my vision instead of the goblin captain. I was up and on my feet as Kili grabbed my hand and lifted me into his arms, bridal style, the same way he'd carried me when I'd had an arrow in my back. I buried my face in his shoulder, breathing deeply and inhaling his scent of fresh, clean dirt, of stones after recent rain, and, oddly enough, of freshly ground coffee beans.

I swallowed as he stood me upright, very gently, and enveloped me in a hug. He was a good head taller than me, so his chin tucked perfectly over my head, and he buried his face in my hair, even as I did the same with his shoulder.

"It's okay, Freya," said Fili. I hadn't realised that we had been over with the other dwarves in one huge grouping. "We're not going to let them touch you like that again."

"I'm not going to let them touch her at all," snarled Kili into my hair.

I sighed against his chest and murmured into his shoulder, "Thanks, guys."

Suddenly, the Goblin King noticed me. His eyes settled on me, his face brightening with a sickening smile. "That one," he ordered, pointing at me. "Bring her to me."

The goblins cackled as the grabbed me, yanking me forward. They shoved me towards the hideous being, and I was pushed so hard I fell to my knees, to the shouts and snarls of my friends behind me. I slowly stood back up, completely unafraid but extremely queasy at the sight of the Goblin King before me.

"What are you doing in these parts, hm?" drawled the massive creature, pressing his hands to his knees to get a better look at me. "With a a group of dwarves, for what?" He reached out a finger for my chin, but I jumped back. He looked displeased and roared, "Speak!"

I remained silent, although his breath really was revolting on my face, causing bile to work its way up my throat.

There was a low rumble from the Goblin King. "Very well," he spoke to his people. "If they do not talk, we'll make them squawk!"

This caused the mountain to fill with screams of joy from the creatures of hell. Goblins began to run towards me, grabbing my limbs and shoving my onto my knees to face the dwarves. They stretched out my arms and legs and I yelled as every limb on my body became twisted into positions they shouldn't be.

"Break their bones! Starting with the girl," roared the Goblin King, pointing at me. The goblins placed their hands on me, ready to crack my bones as they locked into their uncomfortable positions. I stared straight at the dwarves in utter terror as they struggled against their retainers. Kili looked like he was going to have a heart attack, and I felt it. He kicked and punched and bit, but for every goblin he sent away shrieking, another leaped forward to take its place. It was as if they knew that Kili, once he was even remotely free, would leap to help me. And that their stupid, bastard of a King wanted me specifically.

"Wait!" Thorin stepped forward.  
At their king's order, the goblins released me. I lifted myself up, kicking more of them off, and sprinted towards Kili. He wrapped his arms around me, promising into my hair that nothing, not even an ugly goblin king, would separate him from me. My heart literally almost melted in my chest.

"Well, well, well," the Goblin King stared down at Thorin. "Look who it is. Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror – King under the Mountain!" The Goblin King bowed in jest. "Oh, but I'm forgetting you don't have a Mountain! And you're not a king, which makes you...nobody, really..."

Thorin looked like he was gonna blow a fuse.

"I know someone who would pay a pretty price for your head," said the repulsive King, lowering his voice. "Just the head of course, nothing attached. Perhaps you know of whom I speak. An old enemy of yours."

Thorin glared up at the creature through his hair, his eyes alight with fury.

"The Pale Orc, astride a white Warg."

Thorin opened his mouth, his voice quiet but as cold as ice. "Azog the Defiler died of his wounds long ago."

"So you think his defiling days are over, do you?" asked the Goblin King viciously. He turned to a small goblin, who began to write down his words. "Send word to the Pale Orc. Tell him I have found his prize." the little goblin left on a swing-like contraption across the mountain and into the darkness, cackling. I followed it with my eyes, fearing for my friends.

Thorin snarled, stepping away from the Goblin King to join his kin.

"What do we do?" Fili hissed to his uncle, but Thorin (and the rest of us) didn't know. There were far too many goblins, and our weapons were too far to reach.

"While we wait for the arrival of our final guest," the Goblin King chortled loudly, "sort through their weapons. Keep anything of value out of their reach." He pointed at the king. "Try anything and I'll see to it that you men will die a slow death while you watch and wait for your own."

"If you have me, why not let the others go?" Thorin yelled, much to the disagreement of the rest of us. "You will receive no more than a penny for them. They are of no use to you!"

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," replied the hideous being, slumping back to his throne.. "I'm sure the Pale Orc would be thrilled to receive thirteen dwarves as opposed to one. As for the girl," his disgusting mouth formed a grin, "She stays and will make for pleasurable company. I've never had a...serving girl, let's call her, before."

I held Kili back as he made to attack the Goblin King with his bare hands. "No, it's not worth it," I whispered in his ear. He stopped struggling against my hold, but his eyes were murderous as he glared at the offending creature, and I could not help a shiver at the ugly thing's implied meaning.

The monster began to sing, rejoicing in the awaiting fortune that would be our demise. I curled my lip in a snarl, wishing I could slit his throat with my bare hands.

**I hope you enjoyed the longness of it. Please review, and next update should come fairly soon!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

Just then, one of the little nasties found Thorin's sword on the pile of weapons. He unsheathed it to get a better look, then squawked and leaped away from it. I jerked my head around to see that all of the goblins were leaping back, even the Goblin King.

"I know that sword," he said, pointing a sausage-looking, wart-covered finger at it. "It is the Goblin Cleaver!"

Thorin saw his opportunity and moved among the goblins, thrashing them mercilessly with his fists and feet.

"The Biter! The blade that brought a thousand deaths!"

The goblins attacked the dwarves in ernest, and I yelped as they tried to pull Kili and I apart. "No," I growled, gritting my teeth and clinging to his hand with bone-crushing force. "NO! You – will not – get me – FROM HIM!"

Apparently, in my pissed off state, some part of me decided to put some magic behind that conviction. Any goblin who so much as touched the two of us was sent away yelping in pain, with nasty brown mushrooms popping up on their exposed skin. Also, another minor side-affect: Kili's and my hands were utterly inseparable.

He yelped. "Freya! What did you do?"

"Umm...just a second!" I quickly sorted through my thoughts, organising them, and finally figured out that I had let my anger seep into my concentration to keep me from casting spells. I simply reversed my conviction, but then cast a spell that would still keep any goblin who touched us to have the same effect as the original ones. I quickly explained what I had done, all of it, and he nodded, reached out, and touched a goblin, sending it away shrieking.

I grinned. This might be a little cool.

Although our hands were no longer tightly packed together, we still kept a tight grip on each other, moving about the goblins, burning them.

"Kill them! Kill them all!" roared the Goblin King. Thorin was pressed against the ground, his limbs held down, rendering him helpless. He stared up at the goblins. One hovered over the dwarf's body as the Goblin King ordered it to cut off his head.

Kili and I yelled in unison, fighting towards his uncle. I opened my mouth to cast a spell.

Just as the blade came down, a bright blue light illuminated the inside of the mountain with a bright glow. Machinery was thrown into the pit, as were each and every goblin. The Goblin King collapsed on the floor.

A dark figure walked towards us. The shine of a sword glimmered in one hand while the man walked with the aid of a familiar staff. We had all been pressed against the ground, but now we stood up, and with a jolt of joy, I recognised Gandalf the Grey.

"Late again!" I yelled at him.

He disregarded this. "Take up arms!" he ordered. "Fight! Fight!"

The wizard thrashed his sword as he made his way towards us. Kili stooped to pick up his sword, buckling the sheath back to his waist hurriedly and brandishing the weapon with a throaty yell. He passed my my swords, and I let go of his hand for a moment to put the sheaths on my back, then unsheathed only one, Glitterthorn, for my left hand, clinging to Kili's hand with my right.

That soon became impractical, however, and I spun, letting go of him, cleaving three goblins in half with a pleased shout of "HA!"

Kili was as protective as ever – he told me afterwards that he had killed at least six goblins that were about to stab me from behind. At one point, he stepped backwards and hit my back. We fought that way, keeping the ugly things away from each other.

Thorin brought Orcrist to meet the Goblin King's attack, the will of the blade causing the beast to trip backwards. He fell into the chasm, taking a few of his minions with him.

Gandalf skilfully swung his sword, turning his body to meet each goblin head on until one creature met Glamdring at the neck. The wizard tapped its head with his staff, only for it to slide off his neck. He quickly turned to face the Company. "Follow me," he ordered. "Quickly."

Kili grinned at me. He was clearly proud of my proficiency with which I swung Glitterthorn, as if it were no more than an extension of my arm.

I grinned back.

We followed Gandalf over the bridge, the chaos behind us not far from our heels. I sprinted as fast as I could, Kili not far behind me. Dwalin took the lead, thrashing his weapon at the goblins in front of us. A group of goblins were coming from the front, heading across the bridge, straight towards us. We picked up a long log that had been used a makeshift railing for the bridges, and began to knock goblins off the bridge.

We soon dropped the log and paused to fight our way through.

Thorin suddenly noticed a group making their way towards us on ropes from across the chasm and roared, "Cut the rope!"

Fili, Thorin, and Oin swung their weapons and detached the raised platform, causing it to crash down against the group of goblins, tying up the ones on the ropes. Some of them went round and round the platform, their war-shrieks turning into yelps and squeaks.

I couldn't help but giggle.

I suddenly realised that I couldn't see Kili. I scanned the group of us for him, screaming his name. I skidded around the corner that he had been around, and found him. He kept running until an arrow fired at him. He deflected it with his blade, looking stunned that it had worked. He deflected another one, then another, and then grabbed a ladder nearby him and used something that was eighty percent empty space as a shield from the bolts.

Then, more dwarves caught up with him. Together, they lowered the ladder around the throats of the advancing goblins. They directed the goblins backwards until they fell.

They laid the ladder across a gap, and everyone sprinted across. I was in the very back, and so as I reached the end of the ladder, I kicked it with a grunt, sending it spiralling into the chasm. I smirked with satisfaction, seeing the goblins fall and the others yelp, unable to follow us.

I soon caught up with the others, landing on a bridge just in time for Thorin to cut the rope and the bridge to swing in the air. When it reached the far right, many of us jumped off while the others waited for it to swing again. Fili was in the final round, and his sword cut the rope, making it impossible for anyone on the bridge to follow us.

Gandalf waved his staff, causing a boulder to roll in front of us, crushing all the goblins ahead, making it easy for us to run freely.

We soon got to a bridge untouched by the goblins. But we all fell backwards as the Goblin King crashed in front of us. Gandalf sprinted to the front of the group, flinging wide his arms to protect his friends.

"You really thought you could escape me?" The Goblin King threw his huge staff at the wizard, causing him to fall against the dwarves. "What are you going to do now, wizard?" bellowed the disgusting creature.

Gandlaf ran forward, poking his staff upwards to blind the Goblin King in one eye. The beast cried out and clutched at his face. After the distraction, Gandalf took his chance and sliced Glamdring across the Goblin King's fat belly. The huge beast held his wounded stomach and fell to his knees in pain.

"Well, that would do it," he said, surprised.

Gandalf, disgusted, swung his sword up to cut the creature's throat. The Goblin King fell face down. The bridge couldn't take the impact. The bridge broke away, and I leaped for Kili, catching him around his shoulders even as he caught me around my waist.

The bridge shuddered against the sides of the chasm, and then broke. I let loose a scream (causing Kili to recoil, as my mouth was near his ear) as we free fell. I landed in a crumpled heap next to Kili, then struggled to my feet, screaming to the dwarf, "Move!"

The bridge came crashing down on top of most of the group just as Kili and I leaped out of the way.

"Well, that could've been worse," someone said. Judging by the accent, I think it was Bofur.

Just then, the ginormous body of the Goblin King came crashing down. I heard the groans and complaints of the dwarves, most of them cursing Bofur for jinxing them. I heard Dwalin's bark the clearest: "You've _got_ to be joking!"

Just then, I noticed a huge swarm of goblins coming down the sides of the cliffs. "Gandalf!" I yelled, pointing out the mass of angry creatures.

Dwalin, who was helping remove Nori from the mess, shouted, "There's too many. We can't fight them."

"Only one thing will save us!" roared the Wizard. "Fly!" I helped Kili yank his brother free of the bridge problem and we stumbled after Gandalf, me sandwiched between the two princes. We twined through many passages, running faster than ever before. Eventually, I could see a dot of light not too far ahead, and I couldn't help but smile.

Gandalf stayed to make sure every dwarf got outside before he joined us, running down the was steep, and Kili kept a firm grip on me, his arm strong and supportive. We kept on running, through pine trees, jumping from rocks and sliding down slopes. Safe at last...

**I don't really know why, but I just like this chapter. It was fun to write, and I just - I dunno. Anyway, thank you to those who ****_have_**** reviewed, and to those who haven't, please do so! I enjoy reading your comments and criticisms, and it makes me very happy. **


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

"Five...six...seven...eight.." Gandalf turned, counting the running dwarves as we fled down the hill. "Bifur...Bofur, that's ten..." Kili's hand remained in mine the entire way down the hill, Fili not far ahead of us. We sprinted down the hill and into Gandalf's line of vision. "Fili, Kili, Freya, that's thirteen...and Bombur, that makes fourteen."

We paused before Thorin, breathing hard and looking around. The dwarves stood, catching their breath while Gandalf looked around with uncertainty.

"Where's Bilbo?"

I looked up so hard and fast, I tore a muscle in my neck and clapped a hand over it, wincing as the warm sensation of blood coming from torn flesh under my skin flooded the area.

"Where is our hobbit?" asked Gandalf with considerable worry. The dwarves looked around, turning to search for the Halfling. "Where is our hobbit!"

"Curse the Halfling!" Dawlin spat. "Now he's lost? I thought he was with Dori!"

"Don't blame me."

Gandalf turned to the dwarf exasperatedly. "Well, where did you last see him?"

Nori spoke up, catching the wizard's attention as he suddenly remembered, "I think I saw him slip away -"

"Yes, I saw him, too," I said suddenly. "I do not believe the goblins have him."

"Well, what happened exactly?" Gandalf looked between me and Nori. "Tell me!" he shouted, causing me to flinch against Kili, who glared at the wizard and put a protective arm about my waist.

"I'll tell you what happened," Thorin stepped out to address his kin. He sneered, "Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it."

"No! Bilbo would never -" I interrupted angrily.

"The hobbit has thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm house since he first stepped out his door," growled Thorin, glaring at me.

I stormed over to Thorin. "Whether Bilbo misses his home or not, he is as brave as everyone in this Company, Thorin Oakenshield. The hobbit has courage. He would not have abandoned us." I almost turned away as my eyes brimmed with tears at the very idea that he was gone (the awful day hadn't helped).

"I am sure we will not be seeing out hobbit again," Thorin replied. "He is long gone."

"He isn't," a small voice said from behind us. I turned, grinning with relief. Bilbo looked rather awful, but all in all, not too bad.

"Bilbo Baggins," Gandalf chuckled fondly. "I have never been so glad to see anyone in my life."

Everyone greeted Bilbo happily.

"Bilbo, we'd given you up!"

"How on earth did you get past the goblins?" Fili asked, his mouth fallen open.

"How indeed," Bilbo smirked slightly as the dwarves watched him, each and every one in shock. He half-heartedly laughed, and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. My eyes widened as I remembered what he was hiding. Gandalf also noticed the nervous fidgeting of the hobbit.

"Well, what does it matter," said the wizard, sparing a glance for Thorin. "He's back."

"It matters," said the dwarf king to Bilbo. He looked highly suspicious, glancing back and forth between the hobbit and the wizard. "I want to know...Why did you come back?"

I exhaled quietly. He hadn't asked how, but why.

Bilbo looked at Thorin, tired and frustrated. "Look, I know you doubt me. I know you always have." I let out an annoyed grunt, hitting the ground with my foot for emphasis. The hobbit deserved no doubt. I knew, as no one else did, what he had done to and for Middle-Earth, and what he would do for this quest in the future. Plus, that incident with the trolls wouldn't've been as much of a walk in the park without Bilbo.

He continued, "You're right, I often think of Bag End." He shrugged. "I miss my books, and my armchair, and my garden. See, that's where I belong. That's home," he admitted, nodding firmly. He kept gazing at Thorin. "And that's why I came back. You don't have one, a home...It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can."

Thorin dropped his head in shame, then raised it again, remembering the Company in his presence.

Thorin and Gandalf began to discuss matters of our journey ahead. Most of the Company was rather cold, as night was falling and the sky was dark and bleak. I just curled into Kili and let him warm me up.

We laid like that for some time, just staring up at the stars together.

"Are they anything like your home stars?" he asked suddenly.

I sighed, rustling my hair slightly. "No. But they're far more beautiful."

He chuckled. "I'm sure."

The silence was destroyed by the howling of Wargs nearby. Kili staggered to his feet, pulling me with him. We sprinted after the group of dwarves that were running just ahead of us.

There was no light to guide us as we dodged the trees. Branches whipped my face, scratching my already bitten and sliced cheeks and grabbing at my clothes. I gritted my teeth. I could see out of the corner of my eye, all of the other dwarves running by me. The Wargs were growling, leaping past us to chase down the others. Kili looked terrified, and I tried to reassure him and found that I couldn't.

Suddenly, Kili stopped in his tracks. "Bilbo, look out!" he yelled.

A Warg was about to pounce on the hobbit. Scared out of his wits, Bilbo backed up until his back hit a tree, the Warg still coming at him quickly.

"Bilbo!" I screamed.

He pulled out his short little dagger thing and stabbed the over-sized wolf in the head. He drew back his sword, stunned that he was alive.

I couldn't help but grin. "Good job!" I yelled at him, and he smiled shakily at me.

Shouts came from ahead, and the three of us ripped ourselves from out positions and sprinted forward. We found the others, who were beating away Wargs with swords and axes. I drew both swords and hacked at a Warg that was about to kill Ori, then one that would have killed Oin.

After cracking open a Warg's skull, Dwalin yelled at the dwarves to run. We hurried ahead, weaving in and out of trees until we reached the cliff-edge. I swore. We were trapped.

"Up the trees," Gandalf commanded. "All of you. Go on, hurry!"

The hobbit looked up, clearly feeling incapable and useless. Gandalf began to climb, as did the others. Ori leaped off a rock onto Dwalin's head, able to reach thanks to the dwarf's height. Balin and Dwalin followed close behind.

"They're coming!" Thorin yelled, warning those who had yet to climb the trees.

"Hurry, Bilbo," Kili said, giving the hobbit a boost into the tree. He climbed higher and higher until he could not climb anymore, and then looked back at me. I stared up at him hopelessly. He yelled and leaped back down, reaching for my hand. He yanked me up into the tree, almost yanking my arm out of my socket. I gazed down, terrified, at the Warg that had almost bitten my leg off. They were surrounding the trees, leaping up, trying to pull the dwarves down.

I looked over at Gandalf. He was cradling a small bright thing close to his face. I furrowed my eyebrows. What the heck was he doing?

I gazed down again and gasped. A giant, bright white Orc sitting on a white Warg. Azog the Defiler. I could see the fear in Thorin's eyes, along with utter fury and hatred to the Pale Orc. The ugly thing sniffed the air, tasting it, speaking to his minions. He locked eyes with the dwarf king, speaking in an odd tongue. He spoke Thorin's name.

"It cannot be," whispered Thorin angrily, as if believing it would make the Orc disappear.

His enemy pointed at our trees, giving an order that sent the Wargs racing towards us. They stood on their hind legs, attempting to reach for the smaller branches while others used their running momentum to pounce into the air, snapping at the dwarves.

I screamed as one reached for me. I hit it with the one sword of mine that was still unsheathed, and it fell away, yelping. Ahead of ours, a tree began to fall, knocking into another. The impact uprooted the other trees until none stood but the final tree. We all leaped, landing on the last tree. I gazed down; even in the dark I could see the long drop. I did not want to fall.

From below the trees, the Pale orc let out a dark chortle as he watched us struggling with the tree. I clung to my branch as the tree creaked and groaned beneath our feet, beneath the weight of all of the Company. Not far from where I stood, I noticed Kili shooting at the Wargs. His hands were shaking slightly, something I'd never seen them do, and he kept hitting parts of the over-sized dogs that would not kill them.

When he finally hit one of their eyes, causing it to blunder and bite some of its kin, he punched his fist in the air in grim triumph and almost succeeded in falling to his death.

With an unflattering grunt and a roll of my eyes, I grabbed his coat and pulled him back up, unbalancing me. As if in slow-motion, I fell from the branch, my arms whirling for a branch several feet beneath me. I gripped it, and it reminded me of a jungle-gym, or the monkey bars that small children used on playgrounds. I squeaked as the Wargs leaped up for my legs. I pulled myself up and hung like a sloth, pressing my body against the branch.

I could feel my muscles quivering, over-taxed. I shrieked as one of the wolves almost caught my cloak. I saw Kili leaping down, extending his hand. I took a deep breath and curled myself around the branch to sit on it like a horse, reaching for the dwarf. I couldn't reach.

I saw him swear and stamp his foot, frustrated that he couldn't reach me. An orange glow came from the highest point of the tree, and I could see Gandalf lighting a pine cone, throwing it down at the Wargs who were under me. The blazing pine cone hit one creature and it skittered away with a whine. The others backed away, yipping with uncertainty.

The Pale Orc's hideous face contorted with rage at the sight before him as his minions leapt away from the growing fire. I caught a pine cone thrown from Kili, and noticed that everyone in the tree had one. I chucked mine at the tormenting wolves beneath me. I suddenly found the strength to stand up, and jumped across the air between me and Kili. He caught me easily. "Don't scare me like that again," he growled.

The ground came alive, fire dancing around. It crawled along the grass until the Wargs fell back. The Pale Orc spat in anger while we cheered in victory. But our laughs and relative happiness was short-lived as the tree uprooted itself, falling backwards over the cliff's edge.

I cried out as I saw the bodies of my friends fall from the branches with yells, grabbing onto the nearest dwarf in fear of free-falling. Orders of "Hold on!" and pleas of "Help me!" ensued on all sides.

I jerked, making towards Dori who was dangling from a branch with Ori on his boot. Kili refused to let go of me. The tree shuddered again, falling for a second before stopping once more.

"Mr. Gandalf!" Dori groaned, his voice breaking from exhaustion and fear. He lost his grip and began to fall, yelling. Gandalf's staff moved quickly, giving Dori something to hold onto. The Wizard was strong, but old. His grunts told me that he couldn't hold them up forever.

I gazed up, seeing Thorin standing up. His eye wandered over me and Kili, and even now, at this place, I couldn't stop my cheeks from blushing. He turned to look at the cackling Pale Orc, safe on the ground.

Thorin's face became a mask of hatred and disgust for Azog the Defiler. When the creature's murky grin appeared on its tortured face, his own was transformed with determination and rage. He lifted his own body from its place, lifting his sword in an unspoken threat.

"Uncle, what are you doing?" Kili asked in fear. In one bound, the dwarf king leaped off of the tree, running between the tongues of fire. Fili and the prince beside me yelled after their uncle, willing him back to them.

I watched in an odd mix of horror and pride as Thorin sprinted towards the Pale Orc, who extended his arms as if to welcome the attack. With Orcrist in one hand and a tree branch as his shield in the other, Thorin was only a few steps away from his enemy.

With a battle cry, Azog and the white Warg leapt from their perch and threw towards Thorin. The weight of the creature against Thorin sent the dwarf crashing onto his back, a groan escaping his throat. As the Pale Orc made a turn, Thorin braced his hands on his knees, lifting his body up to stand once more. But Azog's mace his Thorin's chest with such power it sent him down again.

Despite my anger at Thorin that had built up over many days, I screamed and felt tears prick my eyes. I kicked and struggled against Kili fruitlessly. I saw the Warg grab Thorin's torso in his jaws, and I almost wept in anger at the dwarf's pain-filled howls. The dwarves who could do nothing yelled behind me. I yelled with them, only at Kili, desperately trying to make him let go.

Bilbo was watching in despair. I watched his little body lift up and run, brandishing his yet unnamed sword.

I kicked a nerve in Kili's arm that caused him to recoil and swear, and I leapt away from him, taking my chance. I brandished my swords with a throaty cry, running after Bilbo.

I looked back, and I saw Kili running to help his kin who were dangling from the tree. He saw me looking and bellowed, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" I smiled. At least he wasn't angry with me.

As the dwarves recovered, the White Warg threw Thorin's body onto a rocky surface. The dwarf king's breathing was shallow. He watched the Defiler give an order and another Orc dismounted, approaching Thorin with his weapon in tow. The Orc placed his sword along Thorin's neck, raising it sharply. But before he could kill the dwarf, a certain Halfling flung his body at the Orc, sending both crashing away from Thorin.

The dwarf king watched Bilbo in astonishment until his eyes could remain open no longer. Bilbo plunged his glowing sword into the Orc's flesh, again and again. After a few roars, the Orc fell dead and the hobbit ran to defend Thorin's unconscious body.

"I warn you," Bilbo yelled, determination echoing with a slight tremble. "Don't come any closer, or I shall kill you where you stand!"

The Pale Orc smiled as the Warg stepped forward.

Bilbo jerked his sword left and right. "I-I mean it!"

Azog gave a command, and Orcs from his left and right approached Bilbo. The hobbit swung his sword at them desperately, but he never wavered. Saliva dripped from the Warg's tongues as they prepared for the final two steps to make Bilbo into dinner.

With a ferocious war cry, I leapt over Thorin and Bilbo and landed in front of the Halfling. "Come any closer and I'll tear you apart with my bare hands," I snarled at the Wargs and Orcs in front of me. Without waiting for anyone to respond, I stabbed one Warg, causing his rider to fall off, who I disposed of quickly. Then I sliced the muzzle of the other one, yelling, "Bad dog!" and struck his rider, destroying him.

The other dwarves joined us, and Dwalin beat in the brain of one about to pounce on me. I nodded my thanks and he nodded in reply, before turning to dispatch another one.

Bilbo let out his own battle-cry as he flung his sword at an approaching Orc. If the situation hadn't been so dire, I would have smiled as he protected Thorin with his very soul.

Kili caught up with me for a few seconds, stabbing an Orc that was about to slip a knife in my back. I spared a grin for him, and he squeezed my shoulder quickly before the momentum of the battle spun him away again.

I spun and saw Bilbo lying on his back, while Azog stalked his body. Bilbo crawled away on his back until he hit a rock, freezing him in place as the Pale Orc smiled grimly down at him.

I yelled and prepared to sprint over, but just then squawks came from above and I looked up to see the beings I had been waiting for since this had all started. The Eagles flew above, their talons digging into the bodies of Wargs as they picked them up then threw them over the cliff. I ran to Bilbo, skidding to a stop and hoisting him to his furry hobbit feet. I brandished Ripplescale, its twin being sheathed, and laughed like a completely insane murderer. Bilbo nudged me gently to grab my attention, pointedly watching as an Eagle picked up Thorin, lifting him into the sky. I watched him go, scared in spite of myself of what might happen to him.

Azog bellowed in anger and spurred the White Warg to run towards us, going in for the kill.

"Move!" I growled to Bilbo. We rolled to the side, but the Warg twisted and snarled, smashing its jaws in their direction. I tried to slash at its jaws, but it smacked its body into me and Bilbo, sending us crashing against the ground.

I rolled against the dirt and looked up, only to see a great Eagle appear from the flames, making a grab at Bilbo. It flew away with the hobbit clutched in its claws, and him crying out, telling it to go back for me.

The magnificent Eagle turned and flew. Seeing it as a relatively good idea, as opposed to being torn apart by Azog, I sprinted over to the side of the cliff, Azog and his White Warg following me closely. I leaped over, hearing the venomous, angry yell of the Pale Orc, and free-fell for a couple dozen feet, then landed on the back of a random eagle. I craned my neck back, watching as dwarves all over the place were grabbed in the claws of Eagles or leaped off the side of the cliff even as I had.

I saw Gandalf jump from his place and fall quite a distance until he landed safely on his ride.

"Oi. Freya," said a soft voice in front of me. I spun to find that I was sharing an eagle with Fili and Kili, the latter right in front of me.

I yelped with happiness and embraced Kili, reaching in front of him to pat Fili's shoulder. My joy was short-lived, however, as the princes noticed their uncle being carefully carried in the claws of a different Eagle, a little ways ahead of us.

"Will he be okay?" I wondered aloud.

Neither of the brothers in front of me answered, but the stiffness of the muscles in their neck told me their worries plainly enough.

**This chapter, too, I really liked. I don't understand myself sometimes. Anyways, please review, and updates will be coming fast for awhile! I have up till chapter fifteen or sixteen (I can't remember) written, so...yeah! **


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

The beautiful birds flew over the rocky lands and mountain paths to settle us in a safe place. They laid Thorin on the flat surface of a jutting rock, and began to drop or place their dwarves there, too. I leapt off of mine with the help of Kili, the last ones to dismount. I stroked the bird in thanks, and then started towards the dwarf king.

"Thorin!" Gandalf bellowed, worry seeping into his voice. "Thorin," he murmured, passing his hand over the dwarf's face, muttering in Elvish.

Thorin sat up and I smiled in spite of myself. My former worry and current relief must have been plain on my face, because Thorin spared a short, painful laugh for me.

"The Halfling?" he asked.

"He's alright," Gandalf reassured him, saying a bit louder, "Bilbo is here."

Thorin got up with help from some dwarves, and started towards Bilbo. The hobbit sighed with relief to see the man alright.

Thorin shrugged off any remaining hands and stabbed a finger at Bilbo. "You!" he took a step towards the Halfling. "What were you doing?"

Bilbo frowned with uncertainty at his tone.

"You nearly got yourself killed." He drew ever closer to the hobbit, who looked helpless. "Did I not say that you would be a burden? That you would not survive in the wild? That you had no place amongst us?" He was within a foot of the hobbit, and he was breathing heavily.

The hobbit stared at the rock beneath his feet, looking utterly miserable and permanently downtrodden.

"I have never been so wrong," Thorin admitted in a whisper, embracing the hobbit with gratitude. "I'm sorry I doubted you."

Bilbo looked stunned. He finally found his voice, "No, I would have doubted me, too." He shrugged. "I'm not a hero. I'm not a warrior. Not even a burglar," he admitted, receiving a laugh from the wizard. The company turned to watch the Eagles fly away.

"Thank you!" Ori called, jumping and waving goodbye. I smiled and waved with him after our rescuers.

Thorin's eyes drifted across the sky and alit on a sight sweet to behold. Bilbo followed his gaze and asked quietly, "Is that what I think it is?"

Thorin replied, with a gravelly, soft voice, "Erebor. The Lonely Mountain – the last of the Great Dwarf Kingdoms of Middle-Earth." He closed his eyes and sighed, then opened them, his smile never faltering. "Our home," he declared.

"A raven!" hailed Gloin as a small bird flew by. "The birds are returning to the mountain."

"That, my dear Gloin, is a thrush" Gandalf corrected, smiling at the little creature.

"But we'll take it as a sign," Thorin nodded, smiling at Bilbo beside him. "A good omen." The hobbit returned the king's smile and followed the bird with his eyes.

"You're right," sighed Bilbo. "I do believe the worst is behind us."

I sighed heavily into Kili's chest. I didn't want to point out the fact of the huge whopping dragon that awaited us, so I merely smiled and closed my eyes.

"What are you thinking about?" asked Kili quietly.

"How far I've come," I replied without opening my eyes. "How far _we've_ come."

He chuckled. "We've got a long way to go, Frey."

I jerked away from him slightly. I had _never_ been called that before. "What?"

"I've been trying to find something shorter to call you. I finally made up my mind."

I leaned against him again. A nickname. This could get far more interesting.

**Okay, so this one is painfully short. It's really just a filler chapter for me as I prepare to shift from movie to book. Joy. So, as always, please review!**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

Later we sat about the fire on the rock. The eagles had brought us some of their prey, which was nice of them, and we had eaten. Now most of the camp was asleep. And I was struggling to sit still as Kili tried to dress the slice from the goblin captain's knife on my cheek.

"Just hold still!" he said for the umpteenth time.

"But it _hurts_!" I whimpered.

"Don't be such a big baby," he said. I stared at him with wide eyes, and he took advantage of my sudden stillness to swab with wound quickly, causing it to sting and me to wince. When I finally came to the conclusion that I must have rubbed off on him a great deal, however, back to fidgeting I went.

The prince in front of me whistled at his brother, who came over grinning. "You called?"

"Hold her head for me, will you?" grunted Kili, working to put some sort of herb-like pulp onto the bandage.

"Wait, whaat?" I asked, wriggling, but before I could do a thing, I found Fili's hands firmly on both sides of my head, holding it (and me) very still.

I complained loudly, but there was nothing I could do. I pouted and waited as Fili held my head still and Kili attended to the many scratches and bites that I had gotten up and down my arms.

"Are you done now?" I asked. "I mean, really. I don't need an entire medical team! It's just a few scratches."

Kili touched the new bandage on my cheek. "_That_ one could very well get infected, as could any of the other little ones, Frey. You know that."

I glared at him. I did know that. "Doesn't mean you guys have to be doting mothers," I replied.

He just shrugged. After a large sigh, I limped a ways away from the fire so I wouldn't have to be woken up at midnight by snoring dwarves. I wished, once again, that I had told Moonshadow to be _here_, not at Beorn's, but it couldn't be fixed now. I had lost my wine and water-skins to the goblins, and now all I had was my cloak, the soiled and filthy clothes that I was wearing, two swords, a dagger, and a necklace.

I took my cloak off and bunched it into a ball, trying to ignore the smell of underground caves as I rested my head on it. Then I relaxed for the first time in – who knew how long.

Kili laid down next to me. "You said you were going to tell me about your horse," he said quietly.

"You said you were going to tell me what you were going to say at Rivendell," I countered.

He blinked. "You first," he told me.

"There's not much to explain," I murmured. Despite its smell, the cloak really was very comfortable and soft. "He's elvish. He can talk to me, and he understands what I say. He's not...your typical horse. He doesn't like saddles, he barely consents to a rope version of a bridle. He can run at extremely fast speeds, and I think, if I asked him to, he could probably swim me across a deep, wide, fast river. I don't know much else..." I blew out my breath in a sigh and closed my eyes.

"A good horse, then," said Kili, turning over onto his back. "What I was going to say -" He paused and looked back at me, as if considering, then stopped completely.

Unfortunately, I was already asleep.

I opened my eyes the next day before the sun had even started to rise, that time when the sky is all grey, when there's no sound and everything is still, waiting with bated breath for the sun to peek over the horizon.

That was when I woke with a start to find tears flowing down my cheeks and my throat raw, probably from the silent screams that I sometimes make when I'm sleeping. I sat up and curled up into a ball, tucking my nose between my knees, and shut my eyes tight, which did nothing to stop me from crying.

Suddenly, I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder, and I whipped my head up, almost clipping Fili in the jaw. He wrapped my cloak around my shoulders and helped me up. "Come on," he said softly.

"Why are you being so nice?" I sniffed, wiping at my eyes.

"Because I was on watch, and I heard a weird sound, like somebody who was trying to talk but had lost their voice. I looked around, and found you, off to the side with Kili, doing this very odd silent screaming thing. You were sobbing, too. All of it silent. I didn't get it, so I waited next to you until you woke up. What were you dreaming about?"

I leaned against him, not seeking anything more than brotherly support, and he hesitantly wrapped his arms around me, fulfilling that exactly. I wept against him and said between the tears, "I just – It was a really stupid nightmare...It didn't really make any sense...But – I saw all of you being cooked alive by a gigantic red dragon. And I couldn't do _anything_, I was just standing there, and I couldn't move to help you, or even die with you..." I trailed off.

"It's okay, Freya," he told me. "We're _not_ going to be fire-broiled by Smaug, and even if we were, you would be with us and able to help. And I have no doubt that as long as you're still alive, you're never going to let us go ahead on our own and die without you."

I sighed. "Thanks, Fili," I said. "But I think the worst part was watching you guys _die_, so no dying, okay? Promise?"

He laughed. "I promise, Freya, and I'm sure the others will too, no doubt. Come on, it'll be fine." We started walking back up the path.

When we got back to the campsite, I fastened my cloak around my neck and made a nimble leap across the fire to reach Gandalf.

"When are we going to reach a river, Gandalf?" I asked.

"By this afternoon, most likely. Why?" the Wizard replied, straightening up.

"'Cause this lot needs a bath," I replied with a snigger, as they all started protesting.

I spoke over all of them to explain my reasoning: "Well, fifteen guys who've just been underground for a good deal of time, with _goblins_, and were in a battle and all that, who also spent half the night _before_ going underground in a mountain cave, before which they were victims of a rainy thunder-battle, before which they were travelling all day – well, with all of those factors added in, plus a night out in the open – you lot don't smell too good."

They all laughed and we started off after Gandalf. Just as the wizard had said, we reached the river by early afternoon. I called dibs on the river, and they all hurriedly started back up the hill.

Snickering, I took a long _refreshing_ bath in the rather cold water, cleaning my clothes. Not wanting to wait around for them to dry, I dried them with a spell and started to put them on. After brief hesitation, I dried myself with the same spell and then put the clothes on.

Finally, I started clambering up the hill.

There was a small bank, then the trees immediately began. There was a small path winding between the trees, and I sighed as I contemplated my climb. Eventually, though, I reached a relatively level clearing where the dwarves had set up camp. Literally all of them were sitting with their backs downhill, talking in very loud voices. Only Gandalf was the exception.

I cleared my throat loudly and said brightly, "Hello!" They all jumped and looked behind them. They looked relieved to see me out of the water and they all hurried off downhill – again, Gandalf was the exception.

I settled by the fire and prodded at my swollen ankle, desperately trying to rid myself of horrifying mental images. If you don't know, don't ask.

"What's wrong with it, Gandalf?" I asked, referring to my ankle.

"You twisted it. Possibly a minor sprain, more likely a major strain. Nothing too serious," replied the Wizard without looking over at me.

"How?" I asked.

"When you jumped off of your eagle yesterday, of course."

"Oh," was my only reply. I stared at the crackling fire and contemplated healing the ankle, but found that I didn't really care enough. I'd deal.

And so I occupied myself with shaking my head periodically, like a dog trying to rid itself of water, throwing off rather nasty, disgusting images of the Company in a river.

Needless to say, I was quite pleased when they had all returned.

**Heh-heh. Poor Freya, having naughty thoughts. Hello, my lovelies! Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, was caught up with other things! pLeAsE ReViEw!**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

We arrived at Beorn's with low food supplies. Gandalf insisted that we go in pairs or groups or whatever he wanted to call them.

I was in a group with Thorin and Balin. It was a rather boring period of waiting.

When Gandalf whistled us forward, we started up the path. I noticed a lot of odd acting animals, which surprised me. When we eventually got to the porch, Beorn looked surprised. "You said there were only six," he rumbled. "Six does not equal nine."

Gandalf explained, and continued with his story, until everyone was on the porch. I spent the time staring up at this huge person, who seemed at least three times as tall as me – although, I being only about four and a half feet tall (kind of short for a dwarf, too), this was not saying much.

Beorn finally turned about and stared at me as hard as I was staring at him. "You travel with a woman, I see, Gandalf. Are you sure this is wise?"

My face immediately flushed a dull, brick red.

I heard Fili mutter, "Bad idea. One does not simply imply that Freya is -"

"A burden," I finished. "_I_ happen to have been highly helpful on this journey, Beorn. I would very much prefer not to have to go through the whole 'A woman?!' thing again. So do us all a favour of not seeing my temper burst out in full blast, and shut up."

I struggled not to clap my hands over my mouth when I was done, the words seemed so foolish to me. I mean, the guy was ginormous.

Beorn sat in silence for a second, and then started to laugh, a deep, booming laugh. "Good! I have never met a woman with fire like you – Freya, your name is?"

I nodded, staring at the wooden porch beneath my feet, my face redder than ever. I could hear Fili chuckling as Beorn said, "There's no need to be ashamed of being yourself, lass. It's not wrong to be fiery."

I glanced up at him, grinning. He reached forward and grasped my hand warmly, bringing it up to his lips to gently kiss the back of it. I blushed and giggled like the teenager that I am at heart, and he smiled warmly. "It's very nice to meet you, Freya."

Beorn dropped my hand and began to speak with Gandalf about what to do about some things that I didn't care much about right then, leaving me to just think.

We spent the next couple days just relaxing, although I spent a good hour reuniting with Moonshadow. I was surprised by how much I'd missed him.

I wandered about, sparring with people, making friends with the animals that Beorn had, eating (a lot) and, of course, I took full advantage of having stopped for awhile – I took a bath every day. I knew that there wasn't going to be much chance of _that_ luxury once we left, and so was taking every chance I got to make full use of Beorn's house.

There was one morning where Beorn informed us that he had gone out the night before.

"Come outside," he said. "I'll show you what the outcome was."

Apparently, he had already told the dwarves what had happened, because they were snickering and shoving each other. I had just gotten up a little while ago, and had spent the last fifteen minutes making myself relatively presentable. Now that I was down here, however, I regretted that time. Now I didn't know what they were talking about.

I decided to go for the direct approach. "So, what're you guys talkin' about?" I asked casually, picking up a piece of toast with some sort of jam on it. I crunched on it contentedly, watching them suddenly become nervous and shifty.

"Er...nothing!" said Bofur.

I rolled my eyes. Nothing got my suspicions up worse than that. "Oh, really? Why'd I come in to see you lot laughing and chuckling and shoving while Beorn here is leading you out to show you something?"

"Well, you see, lass..." started Bombur.

"Beorn went hunting last night," said Nori, rather bluntly.

Bofur glared at the both of them. "What'd he catch?" I asked brightly.

"Orc," replied Beorn. "Orc and Warg."

"Ooh, can I see?" I asked excitedly.

Before any of them could stop me, I sprinted out and down the path. I skidded to a halt as I saw a stake driven into the ground. On top was an Orc's head (reminding me forcibly of the Uruk-Hai massacre scene in _the Lord of the Rings_ films, which was one of the few scenes I remembered), and on the pole was a Warg skin. There were flies everywhere, buzzing about like sick dancers, landing here and there and then taking off again.

"Eww," was all I could say.

The other dwarves caught up with me, and catching sight of my disgusted expression, they were all sent into hysterical laughter.

"Oh, you should see the look on your face!" chortled Kili.

I drew myself up haughtily and said imperiously, "You should have let me come out here, then." And so I picked my way out of the sea of dwarves and went back inside for breakfast. Even rotting-corpse-strewn battlefield couldn't have ruined my appetite.

**More fun stuff ahead. And OH! I forgot! I must apologise to anybody who has read _the Lord of the Rings_ closely and cares about the least little detail. Heh. So, I was just reading the beginning of _Two Towers _a few days ago, and guess what I find! I find out that Shadowfax is a horse of Rohan, and his purpose in life (as with his entire line before him) is to carry the kings of Rohan. Therefore the whole thing about Moonshadow and everything is incorrect and a complete fabrication of mine. I would prefer to keep it that way, as it would be a lot of work (not to mention that I don't know how to do it) to go back and change that bit.**

**Oopsies. So, sorry. Anyway, please review!**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

We spent the next couple days just relaxing. More often than not, I was riding Moonshadow, often just to get away from the dwarves.

I also spent awhile sparring with a lot of the dwarves. I had beaten Kili fairly easily (I had made a bet and now not only did he not know my middle name, but he also had to tell me about every dwarven woman he had ever had a relationship with), but the other dwarves were harder. Most of them were ending in draws.

I was out on the lawn, with both my swords drawn, wearing breeches, a cotton shirt, and my riding boots. "Dwalin!" I yelled. He was halfway across the lawn from me. "I want to spar again!"

I saw him roll his eyes, and then he cupped his hands around his mouth (his sword still in one of them) and yelled back, "But I always beat you!"

"Not this time!" I shouted.

He stood still for a moment, considering. "Done!" he roared suddenly.

I sprinted towards him, raising my swords above my head and yelling a fierce battle-cry (if I do say so myself). Dwalin ran at me, swinging his sword sideways for some sort of an uppercut. As we came closer, I ducked under his rather wildly swinging sword and cut one of my swords at his unprotected chest. He drew his arm back in at lightning speed, parrying my thrust and countering.

And so we battled back and forth, slicing and thrusting and parrying. We were woven in an endless dance, coming into the formation of body-to-body, our sweaty, taut skin just millimetres away from each other, and then our momentum would spin us away again.

I could never tell how long we fought. It seemed like a timeless battle, with no difference between the timing of the blows and the timing of the parries, dodges, and twists.

Finally, I sensed him tiring somewhat. With a burst of speed, I wove a web of steel around Dwalin's blade, before catching its cross-guard and sending it flying across the empty space, where it stuck point first in the ground, quivering. Then, before he could recover, I slipped one sword behind his neck and the other flicked up to kiss his throat.

We stood there, his arms at his sides, my swords still in position, neither of us moving except to blink sweat out of our eyes and breathe heavily. Dimly I became aware of cheering around us.

I slowly lowered my swords and sheathed them. Dwalin went and retrieved his sword and slipped it into his sheath.

Just then Fili reached us and slapped me on the back. "Well done, Freya!"

The other dwarves came over also to express their amazement and congratulations. I was actually kind of offended at how amazed they were and told them so. They just laughed.

Then Dwalin came back from where his sword was and lifted me up in a hug. I could't suppress a squeak (Dwalin really was horrifyingly strong), and plus, I was terribly surprised. He didn't seem like the hugging type to me.

He very quickly put me back down, though, and clapped me on the back, saying, "Excellent! Really good, Freya!"

I cast a warning look at Kili, knowing he was still open to the whole jealousy thing. However, now he was arguing playfully with his brother about something.

We all began to troop inside, but Kili jogged up to me and handed me my bow and quiver. I immediately knew where this was going.

"Nuh-uh!" I said automatically. "Not archery!"

"Aw, come on, you're good at it!" coaxed the grinning dwarf in front of me.

"No!" I protested. With a sigh, he put his own bow in his quiver (still strung) and picked me up. He began to carry me over to a clear space a good distance from the fence.

"Gods, you're heavy," he grunted. "What've you been eating, rocks?"

"Why, is your head missing some?" I asked waspishly as he put me down. I stood on my toes and knocked on his head. "Sounds pretty hollow to me," I informed him. "Maybe it's just always that way."

"Haha," replied the dwarf calmly. "Your head's just as hollow as mine."

"Whatever," I muttered. "All right, where to?" I asked resignedly as I picked up my bow. I strung it and slung my quiver over my shoulder.

"To that," Kili told me, pointing at a piece of cloth tied to a post in the fence. "And I'm aiming for that one," he added, pointing at a different one a few yards away. "Whoever hits theirs first wins."

"What's the bet?" I asked cheekily, ducking as he took a swipe at my head. "How 'bout if I win, you can't drink _anything_ at Laketown?"

"And if _I_ win?" he inquired, looking down at me.

"You're not going to." And he wasn't. Now that I had to go through with it, I was determined.

"There's gotta be some motivation for me," he reasoned.

"Fine. Let me think." I already had an idea in mind, but would I be so bold as to state it? That'd be pretty obvious. Then again, this wasn't seventh grade on Earth, where, for some reason, a crush is something secret that simply can't be told. And so, I decided I was bold enough.

"Well?" asked Kili impatiently.

"If you win -" I paused for dramatic effect, " – I will give you – a kiss!"

He raised his eyebrows so high they almost disappeared into his hair. "Really?" he asked, his voice as high as his eyebrows.

I hid a smile by fiddling with my bow string. "Yup."

"Done," he said, and I could hear the determination of his own as he nocked an arrow. "On three. Fili, you count."

"One," said his brother immediately. I stood still, sighting down the arrow, ready to release on three. I could feel the pent up tension in my bow. "Two," said Fili. "Three!"

As he started the word, my fingers released the bow string. I felt the feathers on the end brush my face as it began its journey – and suddenly, _thock_! My arrow sprang out of the dead centre of my scrap of cloth.

I heard another _thock_, and looked with surprise to see Kili's arrow a foot too far to the left of his target.

"Ha!" I said, dancing about madly. "I won! I _won_!"

"Yes, you did," pouted Kili. "Do I still get that kiss?"

"Nope! Not for awhile yet!" I replied with a grin. I sprinted forward to get my arrow and ran back.

I was full of winning juice today.

**I thought that what you lot needed was a good update! Many sorries on the unexpected hiatus. Loss of computer equals loss of fanfic. :( Back now, though! By the way; Kili will eventually get that kiss, I promise. Please review!**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen:

I knew from everybody's expressions the next day that we were leaving soon.

Breakfast was a rather somber affair, since nobody would look me in the eye. They all knew how happy I was, and didn't want to break it to me that we were heading into Mirkwood.

Meanwhile, I pondered the rather annoying question of what to do with my horse. I decided to consult him myself, and after I was done eating, I slid outside and walked out to where Moonshadow was.

"I need a word!" I called out to him, and he cantered over.

_Yes, Freya?_ he whinnied.

"What do you want to do?"

_And you are referring to...?_

"Whether you want to come into Mirkwood with us."

_If I don't, I might not see you again._ He sounded very upset. _You could be killed by that horrible dragon, and poof! My one true rider, gone up smoke. Literally._

"So you want to come? You'd never get past the bit when we get captured by the elves!"

_As soon as we're attacked by the spiders, I'm sure I could get away downriver to Laketown. I will wait there._

"The men of Laketown would capture you," I said despairingly. "I think. They're be very odd about it, I know that."

_Fine. I will wait for you lot to exit Laketown, and then we will meet then. Okay?_ Clearly peeved, he galloped around the paddock he was in, and I walked away, nervous, but sort of pleased with the mini-plan we'd hammered out.

I sucked on my cheek as I slipped towards a quiet spot in the woods and reached deep into my newly recovered knapsack. It felt good to feel all of my different possessions in the bag, but I was intent upon my quest, and finally my fingers found what they were searching for.

I pulled out a well-thumbed book.

On its folded, battered cover, it read: _The Hobbit_.

I held it in my hand, weighing it. It, and all the other _Lord of the Rings_ books, had been a birthday present _years_ ago from Lily. I had read it, along with the other four books, only a couple of times and almost four years ago was the last time I had read them. Other than _The Hobbit_, they were quite difficult for me to read, and I couldn't remember a lot. _The Hobbit_ was actually the easiest to remember.

I swallowed and flipped the pages as fast as I could until I reached the chapter where the Company left Beorn's. I couldn't resist a shiver as I saw just how close we were to reaching the Lonely Mountain.

Suddenly, I couldn't resist, and I skipped ahead to the Battle of the Five Armies. I combed the pages carefully, searching for the ones who died. I knew Thorin did, but was hoping (since I was in movie-verse) that Peter Jackson wouldn't kill him. It would probably be too much to hope, though. I couldn't resist a groan and a sob as I read that two other dwarves died – his nephews.

I slapped the book shut and threw it as far as I could. It landed in a creek a couple dozen metres away from my perch. I watched it from where I sat, watched it until I couldn't stand it, and then leapt up to rescue it. I dried it with a whispered spell and shoved it back into my bag, to the very bottom.

I straightened up, a new realisation having occurred to me. There was no way I was going to let those two die. And guess what? In the books or the movies, there had never been any Freya Macintosh, a human-dwarf hybrid witch. And that might be all the brothers needed to survive.

**Yay! Freya's going to save the day. This is more of a filler chapter, just to bridge the gap between "about to leave" and "leaving." Please review!**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

And so it was rather depressing when we got up the next day and started towards the nasty, overhanging wall of trees that was Mirkwood.

I clenched my jaw, and without realising I tightened my grip on Moonshadow's mane. I had consented not to have the rope bridle thing, because he found it itchy and I found it annoying to have him complain incessantly. Needless to say, he was very irritated that I kept clenching and unclenching my grip on his mane, and he kept snorting louder and louder.

Finally, he said, _Freya! Stop! It's very annoying._

"Stop what?" I asked, startled.

_Doing that thing to my neck! It's not helpful. Or comfortable._

"Sorry," I told him, loosening my grip.

I noticed that Bofur was looking at me strange, and I blushed. "He _can_ talk!" I told him.

The dwarf just shrugged and said dubiously, "If you say so."

I fought the childish urge to stick my tongue out at him.

After we spent an entire _day_ just trudging closer and closer to what was looking more and more like the Forbidden Forest (except more overhangy), we eventually reached the very edge of Mirkwood.

Gandalf informed us that we would be spending the night there, and we did, a rather uneventful and boring night. Except when it was my turn on watch (with Kili, of course), I couldn't help noticing the noises that came from those trees, and the eyes that were staring at us. More than once I jumped and grabbed Kili's arm, causing him to startle and draw his sword, almost skewering me on the last incident.

At last, he told me to stop. To distract myself, I pondered what to do. After a few moments, I remembered that I was entitled to ask about Kili's former – er – girlfriends. So I said, "Kili? You lost, and I won that first bet. So...you have to tell me about -"

"Fine," he cut me off. "There've only been three before -" He paused.

I swallowed and supplied, "Before now."

"Yes." He cleared his throat. "Before _now_. First there was a dwarven woman named Alithyk. She had long, blond hair, and a blond beard -"

"A _beard_?" I interjected.

"Yes. She was very nice, and we had -" he cleared his throat again, "A steady relationship for awhile. Then she and her family moved away, and that was the end of that."

I made a sympathetic noise, but he assured me that the relationship had been wearing down for ages before Alithyk had left.

"Then there was another dwarven woman named Piolína. She was pretty much the opposite of you, she wore dresses and skirts about all the time and refused to even touch weapons. We only had a relationship for a few weeks."

I sniggered, trying to think of Kili with a girl who refused to defend herself.

"Yeah, it didn't go too well," Kili chuckled. "And the last woman was named Tralique." He pronounced it "Trah-leek." "You remind me a lot of her. She was your sort of person, without a beard -"

"Again, really? Do your women really have beards?"

For the first time since I had met him, Kili fixed me with a rather cold stare. "Yes, they do. It is perfectly normal among my people for the women to grow beards. Not as long or as bushy or even as noticeable as a man's beard, but they can still be grown."

"Oh," I replied, quailing beneath his unnaturally frosty glare.

"Yeah, oh," replied the dwarf. He shook himself and continued. "Anyway, Tralique was a lot like you. She didn't have a beard like most of our women have, I'm not sure she had one at all. She took care of her own fighting, refused to do a lot of what she was told, which drove some people mad (though not me), and was one of the sweetest girls I've ever met."

"What happened to her?" I asked, pretending to be oblivious to the fact that he had just paid me several compliments all at once.

Kili sighed. "I don't honestly know," he admitted. "One day she was there, next she was gone." His hand played up towards his hair. "I'm not sure she was serious about me, though," he murmured, more to himself than me.

"What makes you say that?"

"For one, she never said goodbye. For another, she never put a courting braid in my hair." My stomach did a flip-flop at that, and he looked like his did, too. He distracted both of us from it, though, by saying, "What about you?"

I spent the next five minutes explaining that I had never dated anybody and that I was a rather odd kid for most of my life, with an overprotective mother who refused to let me date even if a guy had actually wanted to date me. I had never even kissed anybody. I mean, how pathetic is that? Twenty-four (Earth years) and I hadn't even kissed a single guy.

He bit his lip. "Not a single boy?"

I shook my head, staring at my feet. I swallowed down a little lump in my throat.

"Then none of them must have known you," Kili told me softly. I glanced up at his face, and on it was the kindest and most honest face I had ever seen in my life.

Just then, Fili came over and told us that it was his turn. I settled into my little nest made out of a blanket, my cloak, and my knapsack and whispered a swift thank you to Kili. He didn't respond, only turned over and gave me that look again. Then I fell asleep.

**Getting closer to that kiss! Please review!**


	19. Chapter 19

In the morning, we all got up and stared apprehensively at the forest. "Do we really have to?" I asked Gandalf, hoping I didn't sound whiny and just nervous.

"Yes, Freya," replied the wizard, looking unusually grave. "Not unless you wish to go two hundred miles that way -" he pointed north, "and meet a great deal of Orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins of the worst description on the slopes of the Grey Mountains. Or you could go twice that distance that way -" he pointed south, "and go to the home of our resident Necromancer."

I sighed. "A simple yes would've been fine."

"But then you would not have seen the actual reasons of why you have to go through Mirkwood."

His wording was not lost on the dwarves, but I was the only one who spoke up. "Whaddaya mean, '_you_ have to go through Mirkwood'? Aren't you coming, too?"

"I have business elsewhere, Freya," replied Gandalf. A harder edge came into his voice as he added, "Thorin Oakenshield's Company and their quest for the Lonely Mountain are not my only responsibility, Freya. And neither are you my major priority."

Stung, the rest of us watched as Gandalf took Bilbo aside and started to talk with him. I still don't know what he said. However, I assumed it had something to do with a small, golden band of metal that Bilbo had in his pocket. This was judging by the amount of fidgeting from the hobbit and the fact that his hand kept straying towards his pocket and fingering something inside.

"What d'you think is in his pocket?" asked Kili, following the same wavelength as me.

"I dunno," I said evasively. "It must be something he picked up in – underground."

Kili raised an eyebrow at me, but I didn't elaborate.

Just then, Gandalf came over and drew me aside. "Oh, I get a turn?" I asked him.

"You are an unexpected traveller in this venture," replied the wizard.

"Uh-huh," I said. "And Bilbo is, too?"

Gandalf hesitated a moment too long. "No," he replied. "But -"

"Don't," I told him, holding up my hand. "You didn't talk to Bilbo because he's an unexpected traveller, like I am, which is why you're going to talk to _me_. You were talking to him about -" I lowered my voice and pulled him further out of the dwarves' earshot, _"__The Ring."_

Gandalf sighed. "And you know about this how?"

"The books, remember? They're called _Lord of the Rings_ for a reason, you know!"

"Right. Well, I am trusting Moonshadow to keep you out of trouble, my dear. And you to keep the dwarves from the same. Please try not to let them leave the path!"

And with that, he strode back to the group and began informing them that they should not leave the path, that they would most certainly die if they did, blah blah blah.

Meanwhile, I stood off to the side. I leaned against Moonshadow, scowling that Gandalf couldn't trust me to look after myself. As I watched, Gandalf briefly pulled Kili a few metres away from the mass of dwarves and whispered something to him. My scowl deepened as I saw them both glance in my direction, then Kili nodded and Gandalf smiled. He seemed to say, "Good lad," or something like that. Beats me.

Then the wizard mounted his own horse and started riding away. When he was a blip on the horizon, determined to have the last word, we all heard him yell, "AND DON'T LEAVE THE PATH!"

I growled and mounted Moonshadow. The dwarves looked at me oddly. "What?" I snapped. "I'm not walking the whole freaking time we're in there!"

And so we started on the path into the dark, overhanging branches of Mirkwood.

I shivered as we passed a particularly gnarled tree. "What's wrong?" Kili asked, walking beside where Moonshadow was plodding along.

"It's the trees," I explained. "They seem like they're...alive."

"Trees are alive," he pointed out.

"Yes, but these ones – it's not a normal tree's kind of alive-ness. These ones are more aware. They're ancient. And unfriendly."

"How can you tell?"

I shrugged. "I can just sense it. Can't you?"

He cocked his head as he walked, as if listening. After a few moments he shrugged and shook his head. "Guess not."

I frowned and urged Moonshadow forward a bit.

But I soon realised that it was hard not to go ahead of the dwarves while riding.

It had been so many days since we'd entered the forest, I'd lost count. Our food supplies were waning, and we'd already crossed the horrible river in the middle of the woods. This involved me leaping across on Moonshadow at a gallop (he can jump quite far, you know) and promptly being told when the others reached me that the horse should carry Bombur, who was now sleeping after a dip in the water.

To make a long story short, Moonshadow almost threw me off and they took that to mean no.

"Will you hurry up?" I called back exasperatedly after the dwarves had lagged a good fifty yards behind.

"Well, excuse us, Freya, but we're not all riding horses!" yelled Bofur in reply.

I made a face over my shoulder at him and continued to plod along. I was so incredibly bored, just walking through the woods, that I actually started to fall asleep on Moonshadow's back. As matter of fact, it wasn't even starting – I remember dreaming nostalgically about some of my favourite foods, back home – chocolate chip pancakes, spaghetti, fish and chips. The pancakes I had discovered in the States.

Next thing I knew, I heard a yell and was jarred back to full wakefulness. "Wha – pancakes!" I blurted, surprised to suddenly find an annoyed horse glaring down at me.

I heard a snigger in my ear and turned my head to find, to my mortification, that Kili had caught me before I hit the ground.

"What?" I snapped, feeling my ears turn red. "Have _you_ never fallen off a horse?"

"Actually, no," replied Kili with another snigger.

I stuck my tongue out at him and jumped out of his arms. "What do you know?" I muttered. In my annoyance and embarrassment, I unsheathed both of my swords and moved to attack a tree.

"Nope!" gasped Kili suddenly, grabbing my wrists. I almost dropped the blades in surprise, then opened my mouth to yell at him.

"You can't tell me what to do, Kili Oakenshield!" I screamed, ripping my arms out of his grip. My cheeks burned as the heat of fresh embarrassment hit them, and now he had made the mistake of getting me mad. "I can attack whatever I want, and you better be careful, 'cos next it might be _you_!"

I must admit, I must have looked terrifying, with my bright red face, hair all askew, my teeth bared in a snarl as I shouted, not to mention the swords. After all, Kili backed up a step. I felt a lump growing in my throat for no apparent reason as all of the dwarves stared at me. Kili especially was giving me a look like he'd never seen me before.

I shoved my swords back into their sheaths and leaped on top of Moonshadow, spurring him into a gallop – and for him, a gallop is very fast indeed. As the trees blurred around us, I thought I heard Kili's voice yell, "Freya! Wait!" but we were already gone.

**Sorry, no kiss yet. Stay tuned, though! It's comin' up fast! Please review!**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

I was sitting on the ground, sullenly plucking at the pebbles on the path. Moonshadow had finally told me goodbye, and he was already on his way to Laketown. I was so pissed that he was leaving that I had considered begging him to stay (he was, after all, the only one treating me normally), but thought the better of it and gruffly hugged his neck. Then I had fastened my knapsack onto him. I didn't want to lose it when we met the elves. I was left with only my bow, my quiver, my dagger and two swords. And the necklace and the clothes I was wearing. He had nuzzled my hair, and then cantered away.

Suddenly, I heard – _finally_ – the crunch of boots on the dirt. I glanced up to find, as I expected, a company of thirteen exhausted-looking dwarves plod up. As soon as they saw me, they all plunked down as if they'd been walking for days.

Which they had.

And, considering how fast I'd galloped off, they had been walking for almost eleven hours. We didn't usually walk that far in a day. At least, what we were ninety-nine percent sure was day. In this stupid forest it was hard to tell.

Kili sat (or rather, collapsed) beside me. "That was stupid," he said bluntly.

"What? Yelling at you, or running off, or attacking the tree?"

"No, yes, and yes," he replied. "You _were_ the one who told me the trees seemed malevolent, Freya."

I sighed. "I know. I guess – number one, I had just woken up. _Nobody_ gets me mad when I've just woken up. It's almost as stupid as running off. And if I'm embarrassed, that's even worse. Which brings us to number two: I was embarrassed from falling asleep on a horse, not to mention falling off. And number three, you told me what to do. I _hate_ being told what to do. I forgot that I had told you that the trees seemed _evil_," – this last comment I directed at an overgrown, gnarly tree to my right – "and got angry. So, I'm sorry."

Falling silent, I hugged my knees and put my chin on them. I already sorely missed Moonshadow, to whom I never had to apologise. He already understood my mind and forgave me easily, just as I did for him.

"Hey," Kili said softly. "It's okay. This forest – it's doing something. I think it's like, fermenting and seasoning something to throw at us, to _make_ us stray off the path. I don't know." He shook his head.

"It does appear to be making us act a little less sane than usual," I replied with a quiet chuckle.

"A little?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at me.

I replied with a grin. "You know me," I giggled. "I'm not sane even out of this forest!"

"That, I'll believe," he chortled.

After that we sat in companionable silence for a few moments. Then I noticed that Kili seemed to be having some sort of internal struggle. "What?" I asked him suspiciously.

He struggled for a moment more, then burst out, "What are pancakes?"

That surprised a laugh out of me. "You mean to tell me that you don't have pancakes here?"

"What are they?" he asked again.

"They're these round foods made out of, like, flour and stuff. It's like a cake, except it hasn't got frosting and it's shorter and thinner. It's not made in a pan, if that's what you're thinking. It's sort of made on a griddle, I think it's called, that goes over a stove."

Kili looked kind of lost, but he nodded anyway. "Do you like them?"

"Yeah. Especially with bits of chocolate in them..." I sighed. Suddenly I was struck by the memory of what I had thought Kili's eyes looked like when I'd first seen him. I'd thought that they were chocolatey. I blinked, staring at his eyes with a cocked head.

"What?" he asked nervously, gazing back at me.

I blushed. "It's just – your eyes -" Suddenly I noticed something. "Hang on. Where is everybody?"

Because the entire area of forest around us was deserted. I leaped to my feet and drew my swords even as Kili jackknifed to a standing position and stared around us.

Then I heard a horrible clicking noise. "Oh, no," I moaned. I turned very slowly and found myself face to face with the largest, ugliest spider I had ever seen in my life.

I did the natural thing. I opened my mouth and screamed. Very loudly, and very high-pitched.

Kili whipped around so fast, I thought his head was going to fall off. Fast as lightening, he stabbed into the creatures head and pulled the sword out with blood and some nasty grey stuff on it. The creature shuddered and keeled over.

I doubled over, hugging my stomach. "Gonna throw up," I groaned, realising that the nasty grey stuff was _brains_. How the ugliest, largest, most disgusting spider I had ever seen still managed to have a brain, I don't know.

"Hey." Kili's voice. "It's okay. You're gonna be fine. It's just a spider."

"_Hate _spiders," I mumbled. "_Giant_ spider." With effort, I straightened up and swallowed down the bile that rose in my throat. "What now?" I asked.

Kili stared at me for a second and then replied, "Well, we need to figure out where everyone else went. But...clearly they left the path. That's sort of a problem, 'cos -"

"Because Gandalf told us not to, yes," I interrupted. "However, I think even Gandalf would recognise that these are special circumstances."

And so I crept towards the edge of the path and called softly, "Thorin? Fili? Some sort of dwarf? Maybe Bilbo?"

Nobody answered, and Kili exhaled heavily. "So now we -"

_"__Yes,"_ I replied exasperatedly. "We have to follow them."

"That wasn't what I was going to say," he said patiently. "We have to figure out where they went."

"I know where they went," I said slowly and quietly, as if I was predicting somebody's death.

Kili frowned at me. "How can you _possibly_ -"

I held up my hand, cutting him off. "Let's just say that I know, and I'll explain it later, m'kay?"

"Fine," he replied. I took a deep breath, steeling myself to leave the path, which was exactly what Gandalf had told me _not_ to do. I berated myself as I remembered that Gandalf had also been counting on me to keep the others from straying off the path – so far the only dwarf that I had managed to keep from the lure of the forest was Kili, and he was about to leave it to find his kin.

I swallowed and shuddered. Suddenly, I heard another clicking noise. This time, I didn't hesitate. I whipped my swords about and spun, sweeping one in an uppercut along the spider's leg, severing half it off.

The spider keened as if mourning the loss of half its leg. Then with its remaining seven, it scuttled at me and I sliced off another leg. I kept on going until it was only twitching abdomen and head, and I was forcefully reminded of the scene in _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_ with the black knight.

So, of course, I just had to double over laughing. Kili looked at me, leaning over a legless spider, cracking up, and I think he feared for my sanity. Then again, when doesn't he?

No more spiders came at me, giving me time to get my giggling under control. As I hiccuped back into a relatively calm state, Kili asked me, "So...random laughing fit. Why?"

I hesitated. I probably wasn't going to be able to explain _that _without explaining _this_, and then it would eventually lead us to the subject of how I got here.

"Later," I said. "We need to go find some stupid, foolish dwarves and a hobbit."

And so we set off into the woods. I sighed as I pushed a creeping vine out of the way. "We're never going to find the path again. You realise that, right?" I asked Kili.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "Something tells me we won't be needing it, anyway."

I nodded. I jumped at every sound, expecting to hear the clicking noise that meant a spider. We had barely gone twenty feet, however, before I started actually hearing clicking.

"Kili?" I whispered, turning around to look at him.

"Hmm?"

"Do you feel like you're being watched?" Because I had just noticed the fact that my head was tingling, and that only happened when something was directly above me and about to drop. But when I looked up, nothing was there.

"What does being watched feel like?" he asked. "Is it that tickly feeling on the back of your neck?"

I nodded.

"Well then yes, a bit. Well, quite a big bit."

Just then, I heard the clicking noise and I screamed. Kili suddenly stabbed at something over my shoulder, and I yelped as he almost severed my arm from my body. Suddenly, he swore and pulled his sword back, just as I felt a sharp pain in my back.

"No," I gasped. I stared at Kili, and my face felt like it was made out of terror and betrayal. How could he have let it sting me?

"Freya, I'm so sorry," he said. "It stung you just as I stabbed it."

He caught me as I sagged and I winced as I saw Kili get stung. The spiders backed away as the two of us slowly slid to the ground. I swallowed as I gathered my last remaining mobility.

I gazed at Kili and suddenly lunged forward and pressed my lips against his. His tasted sweet, and for a second I felt giddy, realising how I wanted to stay like this for the rest of my life. Then my muscles failed and I fell backwards as I lost control of my limbs. I whispered as he stared at me, shocked, "I love you, Kili. And by the _Valar_ I've wanted to do that this whole freaking quest."

I desperately tried to say more, because that sounded _so_ incredibly stupid, but my jaw wasn't working. My head flopped backwards and my eyes closed and despite all of my efforts, I could not move a centimetre.

Then everything sort of faded and I fell into unconsciousness.

**_There's_**** the kiss you've been waiting for! Sorries if it's not up to expectations, this was quite a chapter to write! Please review!**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

I wasn't exactly unconscious. I felt like I was, because I couldn't see, and everything was kind of fuzzy, like it was drifting in and out of focus. But I wasn't because I could feel some coils of sticky stuff pressed against my skin and I could hear a few yells and clicking and the occasional "Attercop!" or "Lazy Lob!" in a voice that sounded like Bilbo's.

Other than that, however, I was completely free of any outside interference with my thoughts. This was a first, having travelled across a great deal of Middle-Earth with a large amount of males. I didn't really feel like thinking about anything, other than puzzling over the fact that I wasn't dead. I had thought I would be dead.

Now, however, I remembered that pretty much all of the dwarves had gotten stung in the book and had been fine, once Bilbo'd rescued them.

But before I could really get thinking, I realised that I could _move_. Not much, but a tiny bit. I twitched and squirmed the best that I could, and then suddenly I felt another pinching sensation in my shoulder blade and I groaned.

Then once again everything faded and I became unconscious. Again.

**Kili's POV:**

Now that I was awake and free from the spider silk, the one thing in my head was getting to Freya. Once I was free, of course, there were many spiders to kill and get rid of, and by that time Freya had been stung _again_ and she wasn't going to be moving for a little while. Then again, it was only thanks to Bilbo that she was alive in the first place. Eventually, I was charged with the duty of untangling her from the sticky spider stuff, and eventually carrying her.

Which I didn't mind.

But it was incredibly frustrating, being so close to Freya and being utterly unable to speak to her. Especially after what she'd done just after the spider stung her – I tried to shove my thoughts away from that and focus on the present, but the notion was just too amazing. It almost made me jump up and down like a little kid on his birthday.

The fact that I had no beard had been troubling me for a while, I noted as I trudged down the path. I had wondered if Freya cared. No self-respecting dwarf woman would often go for a man without a beard. Which was why I had cherished the three dwarf women that _had_. I frowned as I remembered how Alithyk and Piolína hadn't really been interested in me. Piolína, especially.

And then Tralique came along. The only woman I had ever met (until Freya) who cared about me – for me. I tipped my head to the side as I considered all of the likenesses between her and Freya. They even _looked_ almost exactly the same.

I was rudely jarred out of my thoughts as Fili walked up beside me. "You have that look on your face," he noted.

"What look?" I asked, a little frustrated. I felt like my thoughts had been on the verge of something important – and now it was gone.

"Your thinking look. I try to steer clear when you have that look."

"Why?" I asked, knowing that I was leading into some insult and not caring.

"Well, thinking doesn't come naturally to you, and -" He stopped, noticing the look I was giving him. "What were you thinking about?" he asked, changing his tone of voice from teasing to brotherly.

I glanced at him, then back at Freya.

"I see," Fili said, taking the hint. We both looked at Freya thoughtfully for a moment. Her arms hung limply and her head lolled on my shoulder. I supported her back with one arm and my other arm was under her knees, keeping her from falling. I couldn't clearly see her face, but I could picture it – her face was always softer when she slept. Her breath came out in little puffs, often ruffling her hair, and I could feel it fluttering on my neck. Then Fili asked, "What happened?"

I blinked slowly and almost tripped over a rock as I thought about it. "She – she got stung by a spider," I said quietly.

Fili barely restrained from rolling his eyes. "Yes, she did, Kili. Twice. Anything else?"

"She got stung the first time, and she was giving me this look like it was all my fault." My voice dropped until it was quiet, but not a whisper. "Then I got stung, and you know the feeling, where your muscles start to flop around and you can't move willingly...we sort of fell onto the ground and then she sort of jumped on me and -" I stopped.

"What?" Fili asked. "What'd she do?"

I swallowed. "She – she kissed me," I whispered. "And then she kind of fell backwards, and I'm afraid I gave her this look like she had three heads, and then she rambled on for a few seconds – I wasn't really listening, I was in shock – and then she stopped and fell asleep, kind of, like she is now."

Fili barely held back a smile. "Why don't you wait till she wakes up, brother, and then you can discuss it with her."

I nodded once, a short, birdlike dip of my head.

"Don't look so _grim_," he said, finally letting his grin through. "This is what you've been waiting for, isn't it? And you were a wimp and didn't start it yourself, so now that _Freya_ has, it's like she's started the ball rolling, right? So -"

I shut him up with another look, and we walked in a rather stiff silence for a few moments.

**Freya's POV:**

I regained consciousness and let out a groan that was mostly based on the stiffness of _every_ single one of my limbs.

I heard footsteps crunching on dirt and a quiet conversation between two familiar dwarves. I was conscious of somebody's arms under my knees and at my back, and my face was pressed against someone's shirt. My money was that it was Kili.

I struggled to move, but the only thing I could do was open my eyes and breathe. So I opened my eyes and, after a second, realised that I was staring at Kili's neck. So it _was_ Kili holding me. Then I realised I could talk (sort of) and I whispered, "Hey."

The footsteps quickly stopped, and Kili shifted my head off of his shoulder. "Hey, you're awake!" he said, sounding pleased.

"Kind of," I replied. "Can't move much. Just eyes, mouth, whatever's used to breathe. Some random muscles." I coughed and spluttered for a second, and Kili supported my back, looking worried. "Fine," I managed when I could breathe again.

"Famous last words," he chuckled quietly.

I leaned my head over his arm and just concentrated on inhaling and exhaling. Now that I was awake, it was _way_ harder than it should've been. Usually, if one doesn't think about it, it just happens. Now I was being forced to think about it, otherwise it wouldn't happen.

"You okay?" Kili asked, watching me to make sure I was breathing. Part of me wondered if he would give me mouth-to-mouth if I stopped, but he probably didn't know what it was. I winced at the thought.

"Yeah, fine," I said. He walked in silence of a moment, and then I thought it fit to comment, "I thought I was dead."

He shot me a confused look. "You aren't. Unless you're a zombie, which would be creepy."

"Did I teach you about zombies?" I asked. He nodded. "Well, then," I muttered. "But seriously. I thought I was at least going to die, and when I woke up the first time, I thought I was dead. And when we – er – got stung, I thought we were _both_ going to die."

Kili's face fell. "So...you didn't mean what you did?"

I yelped like I'd been stuck with a pin. "Gods, of course I did, Kili! How you could even think that, I don't know -"

"You did?" he interrupted, looking down hopefully at me. I sighed. Guys (especially dwarves), and especially of this specific line of dwarves, were very thick.

_"__Yes,"_ I told him exasperatedly. "I'm not so cruel that I'd lie to you about that." I stared up at him. "I meant what I did, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent."

There was a rather uncomfortable silence for a moment, and then Kili cracked up laughing, and I happily followed. "An elephant?" Kili asked between bouts of laughter.

"Yes!" I replied, trying to sound defensive through my own giggles. "It's a rhyme on Earth from a book -" I slapped my hand over my mouth. "Er...never mind," I said between my fingers, causing him to chuckle. "Later."

"Fine," he said comfortably. "Hey, d'you think you can walk now?"

I stared dubiously up at him. "Most likely not. I'm not that heavy, am I?" He shook his head. I smirked. "Good answer. Very good." Suddenly I had a thought. "Where's Thorin?"

Kili's face closed and I wished I hadn't spoken. "He's not here," he replied, looking straight ahead. "We don't know where he is. I wish we did. I'm worried that the spiders got him."

"I think the elves've got him," I murmured. Kili looked confused, but I shook my head and sighed. "Just the shock talking. Um, maybe I can walk now." Kili put me down and I wobbled slightly but managed to stay upright. Then I took a step and would have hit the dirt if Kili hadn't caught me.

"Bad idea," he commented. I just nodded, and he continued to carry me.

If only we could've stayed like that forever, because the next instant a melodic and melancholy female voice sounded out of the trees: "Put down your weapons – and the girl."

**Sorry for taking so long. I was actually surprised by the lack of reviews on the last chapter, considering that the kiss finally happened...:( But that's okay! 'Cause I made a new chapter! Please review!**


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 23:

Kili slowly lowered me to the ground where I leaned against his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around me to steady me. Just as slowly, all thirteen of us unbuckled our swords and placed them on the ground. I slipped my swords out of their sheaths and stabbed them point-first into the dirt. I had noticed that Bilbo had disappeared, but I didn't point it out and warned Kili in a look not to as well. The others seemed to have come to grips with the magic ring, and now they were pretending that no hobbit had ever existed.

Out of the trees came several elves, led by a tall female. "I am Tauriel," she informed us.

"Great," I replied sarcastically. "Wouldja mind telling us, you know, how to get out of this damn forest? We've been in here for longer than I can figure." The other dwarves made noises of agreement.

Tauriel gave me a look like I was something she'd found underneath a rock. "I did not say that we were here to help you, woman-dwarf." I flushed with anger, and probably would have charged her if not for Kili's arm around my waist, holding me back. And, you know, the whole spider stuff thing.

"Blindfold them," ordered Tauriel. I glared at her, willing her to blindfold me. One of the other elves caught the look and whispered something in Tauriel's ear. The woman elf's eyes swivelled towards me and narrowed. "Not the woman," she clarified. "The king disagrees with binding women."

I spoke up again. "I can't walk," I pointed out. "My legs are kind of shaky from spider-venom, so I need his help..." I pointed at Kili, then trailed off as Tauriel gave me a look that could have cracked a mountain in half.

"You can fix it, no? Just wait a few moments. If you are not able to walk, you will be left behind. I will not permit any dwarf to walk with his eyes free."

I swallowed. Kili gave me a look that I found both frightening and comforting. I bit my lip and let my hand sneak up to my neck, then whispered something, and my legs stopped shaking. I had just withdrawn my hand when Tauriel's head whipped around. "What did you say?" she snapped.

"Nothing," I replied, flashing her a bright grin. "Just a dwarfish swear."

The elf-woman rolled her eyes and returned to her difficult task – watching her people put blindfolds on the dwarfs. So hard.

I took a step forward, and was pleased that it worked. Tauriel shot a glance at me and smirked. "It works, no? You were simply being overdramatic."

For one of the few times in my life, I bit my tongue and refused to respond in a rude way. Kili looked at me, impressed, and I mouthed, _Don't get used to it._

He chuckled, as did Fili, who happened to be only a few feet away. Then one of the elves came over and blindfolded both of them. "They're all blinded, my lady," he told Tauriel.

I walked quickly over to Kili and grasped his hand. I squeezed it, and he returned the pressure. One of the single most reassuring things ever. Reassuring enough so that I raised my voice and called to Tauriel, "Everyone but me."

She shot me a withering look. "You know perfectly well, as I have told you, that I would get in hideous trouble from King Thranduil if I bound you. Although I'm starting to think about binding your mouth," she muttered as an afterthought.

I smirked. After walking a little ways, she seemed to relax, and I made my next move. "I don't get it," I said loftily. "Why would you capture thirteen dwarves just for walking through a nasty, malevolent forest?"

Tuariel shifted herself so that she was walking just a little ahead of me. "We tried other ways – warnings, keep-out signs – but they weren't as effective. Now we have to resort to capture. If that doesn't work – hopefully we will never have to resort to death."

I frowned. "You're being honest."

"Of course I am." She turned and I gasped at the look of pain and regret that had crossed her face, completely eradicating and erasing the disdain and haughtiness of just a few moments before.

I blinked at her sadly. "What's going on?" I asked softly.

"We found a different dwarf, just yesterday, wandering about the forest. He refused to tell us why he was here. So we took him before the king." She sighed. "He refused to even tell us his name. Was he your companion?"

"He travelled with us, yes," I replied. "We wondered where he had got to."

"He is safe. As will all of you be. But you have to remember – the king only wants to know why you're here. If he likes your answer, he'll let you go."

"I'm not sure he'll like our answer very much at all," I replied quietly.

Tauriel sighed. "Listen to me. You have not told me your name, and I honestly do not need to know it. But you are a woman, of course."

I nodded, my cheeks flushing for no apparent reason. Kili squeezed my hand comfortingly.

"Do not become infatuated with Prince Legolas," she told me. "He is a very kind young man, but he is headstrong and does not always follow the way of the elves. Beware of him. We rarely get women in these parts."

She didn't say another word to me for the whole journey. Meanwhile, I was rejoicing. I had always wanted to meet Legolas, and now I was finally going to do it. I grinned, but nobody noticed with a lot of the people around me being blindfolded and the others too deep in thought to think about me.

Suddenly, a gate loomed up in front of us. It was huge, made expertly out of wood. I tapped on it as we stopped in front of it, and was stunned that it felt as hard as stone and yet alive. If felt like a perfectly living tree.

"Yes," Tauriel murmured, startling me a bit as she walked up behind me. "It is alive, and yet hard as stone. It is magic, passed down for generations by our people. We use the same for canoes, if we choose to make them."

Kili tensed as the gate creaked open. I squeezed his hand gently, and he relaxed slightly. We wound our way along a path, past some guards that nodded simply at us, and finally through a large archway. Stepping through it, I found us walking down a long hallway. When we finally reached the end of it, it opened into a throne room. I glanced around all the elves as we walked down the centre of the room.

I jerked my chin up in the air out of habit as I saw the king of the Mirkwood elves. He didn't seem like too much of a proud person, the type of person I hate, but he certainly had the air of getting what he wanted. He was tall, blond, and had a ridiculous crown thing. I didn't really care about much else.

Suddenly, the dwarves' blindfolds were taken off, and they looked around confusedly. Only I continued to stare with barely concealed hostility at King Thranduil.

There was an awkward pause as nobody spoke and only Thranduil, Tauriel, and I knew where to look. Then the king finally asked us a question: "Who are you?"

Every dwarf looked down and refused to answer.

Thranduil sighed wearily. "It was the same with the other dwarf, as well. He was caught wandering around in _our_ forest, was brought in, and refused to answer any questions."

"Since when is walking through some evil, nasty trees a crime, _Your Majesty_?" I asked loudly, sarcasm dripping off the last two words like poisoned honey.

"Why are you here?" asked Thranduil, by way of an answer. Instead of answering, all the dwarves winced. Even a few of the elves (including Tauriel) who'd brought us here, winced. They knew what happened if I was ignored.

Sure enough, I strode forward until I was at the foot of the throne. Thraduil looked a little shocked, as did a few elves, but I did't care. I stood on my toes (being quite short) and snarled, "Are you gonna answer my question of not? 'Cause if you are, I want an answer right now. I don't care what the hell you're king of, I can get a proper answer for a good question. And if you don't answer me, I don't think you deserve my presence and I certainly don't think, elves that you are, you can stand the wrath of a _woman_ dwarf!" I was very careful not to mention that I was a witch, nor the human aspect, but I made my point clear.

Thrandiul stared at me for a second, and then replied in a low voice, "It is our forest. This land is protected. I don't care how noble your intentions were or how foolish your intentions are. Our forest is not to be trespassed in. There is a path for you to use, and you deliberately left it. Have you never heard of 'private property'?"

I frowned. "That's highly illogical, Majesty," I informed him, channelling my inner Spock. "It's just a little ridiculous to capture people for getting lost."

He shifted uncomfortably. "Your dwarves will not talk, yes?"

"That is correct," I replied, dipping my head.

"Then I am afraid that I must insist on your imprisonment," Thranduil told me. "All of you." I backed down the throne room shocked at my lack of impact on the king's morale. "Take the woman to a guest room. Take the others to cells. Keep them there until they speak."

I groaned, noticing that this meant Kili and I were to be separated. My hand made contact with his as I ran into him, and he clasped it for a brief second before he was gently pulled away by an elf.

"You can't do this!" I screamed at Thraduil, distraught.

"Actually, he can," replied a voice in my ear. I ignored it for a moment as I met Kili's eyes and mouthed, _I won't talk. I'll see you when we get out. _I hesitated a moment, then added, _I love you._

He nodded and mouthed in reply, _Love you, too._ He looked like he would have added more, but he was pulled out of sight. I stamped my foot in frustration and turned around to see who had spoken to me. They were gonna wish they hadn't.

**Sorrysorrysorrysorry about not updating. I kind of forgot. :( Lots going on. Anyway, please review!**


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

I found myself face to face with a person I immediately recognised. Clearly he'd been lurking out of sight, otherwise I would have started fangirling immediately. Rather like Gandalf, I would have known this person anywhere. The pointed ears, the longish blonde hair, the pale, elvish complexion.

"Legolas!" I blurted. This was _so_ bizarre. Legolas had been my favourite character _ever_ in the Lord of the Rings, being one of the best looking of all of them (with Aragorn and possibly Merry, Pippin, and Frodo). Of course, there he had been played by Orlando Bloom, who was just as hot...I pressed a hand against my forehead. I was confusing myself.

"How do you know me?" asked Legolas, looking surprised.

"Oh! Uh, Tauriel warn – er, told me about you," I replied.

He shrugged and said, "Well, you are to come with me."

"How come I can't go with the dwarves?" I asked, allowing a little anger and frustration to seep into my voice.

Legolas sighed. "Father says that any women prisoners should be treated as guests," the elven prince informed me. I frowned.

"I am no petty woman," I snapped. "I don't _do_ the whole 'oh, it's a woman, let's pamper her' thing."

He smiled, as if amused by me. "I can understand," he pointed out. "Our elven women are very independent as well. However, what Father says is what must happen."

I growled deep in my chest and his smile widened. "Come," he told me. "We're going to your room."

I followed him with crossed arms and a scowl. They had taken my swords, but not my dagger or my necklace. Something told me to wait, though, and let Bilbo deal with it. I felt a breath of air next to me and I whipped my hand out and poked a head of curly hair. I heard a squeak, and for a second I saw Bilbo as the Ring slipped off his finger for a second. Nobody else noticed, though.

We reached a door in the hallway, and Legolas stopped. "This is where you'll be staying," he said, sounding for all the world like a bellhop or servant at a hotel. He showed me in and stood in the doorway.

I turned and smiled flirtatiously at him. "Thanks, Legolas. Tell your dad that if he ever wants to talk, I'll be here." It felt a little odd, flashing that smile at anybody but Kili, but it had the desired effect. Legolas looked absolutely perplexed.

I sighed. "Listen, Legolas. Can you _please_ let us go? We're not doing something horrible. We're not going to turn around and kill you. W're not -"

"No," Legolas interrupted quietly. "I wish I could, but I can't go against my father's wishes. It _would_ be easier if you talked, told Father what you were doing in our forest."

I decided to try a different tactic, but part of me hated myself for it. I leaned towards him, causing him to back up a step. I fluttered my eyelashes and flashed that flirtatious smile at him again, and pleaded, "Come on, Legolas. Please? I promise we'll be good." I felt like one of those shallow girls who would throw themselves at guy because they felt too self-conscious to not be dating somebody.

It _almost_ did what I wanted it to do. He leaned forward a little bit, tilting his head as if to kiss me, but then he pulled back and looked at me accusingly. "How are you doing that?"

I continued to smile that way at him. "How am I doing what?"

He blinked, then grinned back suddenly. He ignored my question and said, "I probably won't be seeing you, Freya. I'll send in Tauriel, or someone." He turned around and left, closing and locking the door behind him.

I sighed and leaned against a wall, letting that horrible expression slide off of my face. "Bilbo?" I called softly. I heard a slight thump outside the door and a gasp. "It's fine, I just want to ask you something."

I heard another thump that I took to mean yes.

"Don't tell Kili about that exchange, yes?"

I heard a brief chuckle, and Bilbo's voice whispered, "Of course not, Freya."

**Sorry this is so short. I've been doing things. Please review!**


	24. Chapter 24

It had only been a day.

It had been only a day since Legolas had left, Bilbo had abandoned me, and a couple female elves had come to give me my first meal. That was all they did. They came, gave me food, and left.

It had literally been twenty-four hours since I had come to this room. I had cleaned my clothes, cleaned myself, and I was taking advantage of being able to wash. I had nothing to do, though. They didn't bring me books, scrolls, even a piece of wood to throw around the room.

The bed was on a pedestal in a far corner of the room. There was a heavy carpet covering the floor between its stairs and the door, which was always locked. There was a different door leading into a washroom. There was also a a window above the bed, and I realised just how high up this room was. I could see a beautiful garden and a courtyard with a fountain, as if we weren't still in Mirkwood. If I craned my neck a bit, I could see a silvery-looking river curving away from whatever this place was. At night, I could see the stars, which was more than I could say for most of this journey through the woods.

Bilbo still hadn't been back. I was so frustrated, I began bouncing around my room in bare feet, screaming.

By the second day, I took out my knife and began to carve on the wall. I began to use magic to conceal it when the elves came calling with food.

That was one of the things that perplexed me. I could use my magic to trick the elves, even though they were _elves_. However, the one thing I _couldn't_ do was escape. The door was locked with magic, and so far I had been unsuccessful with the window.

On the third day, I gave up being polite to the elves and began glaring at them and refusing to speak to them. _Who cares what they think?_ I thought to myself as I pulled out my knife for another carving. I examined the wall. I had stick figures, the Lonely Mountain, and lots of drawings depicting this whole adventure. I pressed the knife against the wall and began to write words.

Eventually, by the fifth day, I ended up composing a poem. It was mostly nonsense, but a few lines poked out clearly:

_Once in Bree I met a man, a man with yellow eyes._

_To me, he said, beware the whispers, for they whisper lies._

_Deal not with demons of the dark, for on your mind they'll leave a mark._

_Stay not with creatures of the deep, else they'll haunt you when you sleep._

I didn't know why I liked it. I also scratched down something I remembered from home:

"_Stop" says the red light, "Go" says the green,_

_"Wait" says the yellow light, twinkling in between._

_"KNEEL" says the demon light, with its eye of coal,_

_Sauron knows your licence plate and stares into your soul._

I figured it particularly apt for the Sauron thing, and above it I drew a picture of a flaming traffic light. It was something I'd seen on Tumblr once.

On the seventh day, I finally ran out of wall room. So I began to sing. Most of it was utter insane ramblings, such as the ones of a lunatic in solitary confinement – wait, that's me. Ha ha. Anyway, I was singing at the top of my lungs and all the elves stayed away. When the elf-women (who I had come to view as demons from Mordor because they never spoke or let me go or gave me something to do) came to give me food, I sat on the bed, hugged my knees, and rocked back and forth, muttering to myself.

They left as quickly as they came.

The eighth day came. I finally got sick of playing along with the lonely confinement, so I erased all the marks from the walls but the tally marks for the days and began squirrelling away food.

On the tenth day, I managed to convince myself that escape was possible. I clambered up on the bed to stand in front of the window. The courtyard was always deserted now, due to my lovely singing and yelling abilities. I took my knife and slid it under the window, prying the stupid thing up. It came free, and I could open it. I smiled happily.

Then I closed the window and sat on the bed with my eyes closed. If an elf came in, they'd just assume that this was a new phase of my insanity, leave the food, and escape. But they weren't due for three hours, because that was when they gave me dinner.

I was actually composing a spell that would leave a note for Bilbo on the door. I had a feeling that he was coming, but I wasn't waiting until he did. I wasn't waiting any longer. I'd had enough.

Five hours later, after dinner had arrived, I snuck to my window. I pulled it open, then turned around and released the spell I had composed. Over the hours, I had also pulled a tree branch towards my window, and was preparing to climb down. I had taken a final bath, luxuriating in it, sad at least that I wasn't going to get another one. When I felt the grass beneath my boots, I took off running.

**Sort of Bilbo's POV:**

Bilbo came scurrying down the hallway on his hobbit feet. The dwarves were all in barrels, waiting for him to retrieve Freya. When he'd left, Kili had offered to come with him, but Bilbo had ferociously insisted that they would be able to see him. So he'd left the young dwarf pacing agitatedly, refusing to get into his barrel just yet.

Bilbo felt terrible about not visiting Freya. He'd left her on her own for ten days, and he'd heard the elves talking about how insane she was getting. He just hoped that she hadn't gone and done something stupid.

As he approached her door, he noticed that he didn't hear anything coming from inside. Praying that she hadn't done something ridiculous, he touched his hand to the door, intending to push it open. Instantly, words appeared on it as if scratched in by a knife. Bilbo recoiled, and then leaned forward as he read with increasing disbelief:

_Hello, Bilbo._

_Yes, I know you're reading this. I designed this spell so that once your hand touched the door, these'd appear. You should probably know that I am incredibly angry at every single person here – including you – except the dwarves. I have been practically left in solitary confinement for ten straight days. You can imagine how insane I am. It's actually kind of scary. I'm sure you overheard from the elves that I was singing, screaming, yelling, muttering, scratching poems on the walls. Actually, they don't know about my drawings or poems. I didn't want them to take away my knife. -giggles maniacally-_

_So, anyway – I have managed to escape (you'd be surprised how stupid elves can be) and I'm on my way to the barrels right now. Don't ask how I know. I'm sure I'll explain to the whole group later._

_Go tell Kili I'll be there soon. But don't give him a kiss for me. That'd be awkward._

_Much love and insanity,_

_Freya._

Bilbo sighed. So she _had_ gone and done something stupid. With a stifled groan of knowing that he had to go and tell Kili now, he turned and went back the way he came.

**Heyhey! Due to popular demand, I promise, there will be one (maybe two, way later) more Legolas/Freya meeting and...problem. I've already written that. Actually, I've written quite a few chapters ahead. I'm a little proud of myself. You'll have to wait, though. I'm working on a second Spirk (may take awhile - I'm not very good with writing from guy POV's) but if you like that sort of thing, I made a little oneshot...An idea that came to me when I was falling asleep. Isn't it funny how good/insane ideas come when you're falling asleep?**

**Anyway, please review!**


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25:

I was still giggling maniacally by the time I was halfway across the courtyard. I had to stuff my fist into my mouth in order to stop from making too much noise.

I crept along the hallways, turning myself invisible with my necklace. I had almost made it to the barrels when I hesitated. I knew that I had plenty of time – at least enough to go see an old acquaintance.

I turned around and walked towards a pretty little arch. I was following my instincts.

Two minutes later, I ended up outside a huge, gilded door. I gently pushed it open to find Legolas sitting in a chair at a desk. He jumped when he saw that the door was open, but he didn't seem to see me. I released the invisibility spell, and he jumped a foot in the air.

"Freya!" he gasped.

I leaned my back against the wall, jutting my hips out into the room. "Mhm. You better believe it. I tricked you, and Tauriel, and every single one of you _bloody_ elves. I am sick of pointy-eared people, by the way. Excepting hobbits. And you, my pointy-eared, pretty-haired elvish princeling, need to be taught a lesson."

He looked wary. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that you had your chance, and you blew it." I leaned forward and planted a kiss on his lips and then pulled back while he was still stunned. I gave him my flirtatious smile again, and then turned to leave.

I was jerked back into the room as Legolas put his hand on my shoulder and spun me back around, having stood up at the speed of light, apparently.

I found myself almost nose-to-nose with him, and suddenly I realised that I was way too powerful for my own good. Sure, it had taken a couple flirty smiles and a kiss, but all of a sudden Legolas was acting funny. It was like being slapped into being sober after being drunk for ten days. He reminded me of how I always expected Spock to act during that Pon Farr thing.

Which didn't help.

I swallowed, and struggled to regain control over my powers, tried desperately to send some sort of magical message to his brain to stop. But it was as if I had started something I couldn't stop, and now I was scrabbling at fingernail-holes while falling down a cliff.

I stared straight into his eyes as his arm wound itself around my waist, and I slowly spoke to him like a disobedient dog: "Legolas. Stop it. I didn't mean for this to happen. _Legolas._ Earth to Leggie. What the hell are you doing?"

His eyes still retained this mad look, like he was gonna start pulling at my clothes and dragging me towards the bed that I could see out of the corner of my eye. But it was slowly clearing, and we remained standing like that until his face held a bit more sanity.

He glanced down at his arm, then shoved me into a wall. It was something like being in an embrace and then being thrown away like trash. Which, it kind of was.

In two seconds, Legolas had gone from being insanely infatuated with me to being incredibly angry. "How did you do that?!" he demanded loudly.

I couldn't help but think of how damn hot he was when he was pissed off. "Um...I didn't mean to?"

"Not good enough," he snapped.

I sighed, just grateful that he had let go of me. "Well, it needs to be." I was unhappy. This was a side of Legolas that you didn't see in the books or movies. I wished that I had never met him, so that everything that I had wanted to be would have been preserved. "You need to chill. I was just trying to get you to help me. You're being very uncooperative."

Suddenly, he lunged at me, as if determined to take away my virginity after all. I ducked, and he hit the wall full on. I rolled out from under him, ending up on my feet, on the other side of the room. He turned like a bull and I knew I wouldn't be able to pull off the matador stunt again. So the next time he charged, I waited until he was less than a foot away, and then I jumped in the air. The one way he wasn't expecting me to go – not down, not right, not left, but up.

I landed on his shoulders with my knees, trying hard not to fall off and I clamped my hands around his pointed ears to keep from pitching forward into a wall. He made a funny noise, and I realised that my foot was choking him. I drove my elbow into his temple, and he crumpled. I stifled a shriek as I fell with him, bruising my face and my knee to boot. I touched my cheekbone and winced as it stung.

I gently lifted Legolas up. He was out cold. I placed my hand over his face and released a spell to erase his memory of the whole encounter. I didn't want him to remember that, or tell anybody that the dwarves and I had escaped.

I lowered him to the floor again and excused myself from the room.

As I walked down the hall, I could feel the feeling in my brain, the solitary confinement feeling, starting up again. I grinned as I crept down the hall, anticipating seeing Kili.

**I've got the next two chapters after this completed. Expect two more updates very soon. Please review!**


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26:

I rounded a corner and saw in front of me huge stacks of barrels and thirteen open ones. Suddenly, I hyper-focused on a familiar dark-haired dwarf. I didn't even remember running forward, I just knew that one moment I was standing staring at Kili as it dawned on him that I was right in front of him and a smile spread across his face, and the next I was in his arms.

I buried my face in his chest, unable to reach his shoulder. "I missed you," I told him, my voice muffled.

His own voice was muffled from where his face was buried in my hair. "I missed you, too."

"You two are just too cute," said Fili sarcastically from behind Kili. I glanced up over Kili's shoulder, barely able to do it, even standing on my toes.

I grinned at Kili's older brother, realising how much I had missed all of them, even Thorin. "Missed you too, Fili," I told him.

Kili and I stepped apart, but I made sure to keep my hand in his. I felt the feeling of insanity fade as I was surrounded by the dwarves.

"We missed you, lass," Bofur told me, giving me a swift, warm hug.

"Did you really?" I asked with a dry smile.

"Oh, yeah," said Dori a little sarcastically. "A ton."

"What's that?" asked Kili suddenly, reaching up to touch the new scrape on my cheekbone.

"Oh, um, just effects of solitary confinement."

I grinned at him. Suddenly, a presence seemed to part the dwarves, and a familiar face broke between them. I looked up at Thorin. I tilted my head at him, as if asking him to deem judgement upon me.

There was silence for awhile, and then I heard that very familiar voice, the majestic voice that had told me off so many times before, saying softly, "Welcome back, Freya."

I flashed a grin at him. "Good to see you too, Thorin." A sudden thought struck me, and I asked, "How long has this barrel thing been planned?"

There was an uncomfortable silence, and then Ori said quietly, "We started planning this when Bilbo managed to get the word to all of us."

"Which was when?" I pressed.

There were uncomfortable looks pass among the dwarves, which made me wary. I narrowed my eyes and opened my mouth to ask again, but Ori cut me off before I could start. "Six days ago."

My mouth dropped open and I turned to Bilbo. "You let me stew for _six days_ without telling me that we were planning something? I practically went insane! Solitary confinement, yeah? The only people who were making contact with me were bloody elves! By my fourth day, I was scratching things on the walls with my knife! By the second, actually!"

They looked a little frightened at that. "Really, Freya?" asked Kili warily.

"Yes! Ask Bilbo!"

They all turned to Bilbo. The hobbit turned a little pale and swallowed. "Um, yeah. The elves were talking to each other about how Freya – well, by the end of her first day, she was screaming and bouncing around her room. By the second, she was scratching on the wall with the knife, but she was hiding it from the elves with her magic."

I winced. Most of the dwarves didn't know about that. A few of them looked accusingly at me, but I made "later" gestures and they turned back to Bilbo.

"Um, by her fourth day she was writing poems. By her seventh she was singing. On the eighth she started stealing food. On her tenth, she escaped."

"I pried up the window with my knife, coaxed a tree towards me, shimmied down it, and left a message for Bilbo on the door," I informed the dwarves.

Bilbo grimaced. "I was not happy, Freya," he told me.

"Yeah, neither was I," Kili broke in. He grabbed my shoulder and spun my around to face him. I remembered Legolas, and I deliberately kept an expression of annoyance and pain off my face. "When Bilbo came back saying that you escaped yourself, I almost sprinted out of here to find you. I didn't want you getting hurt," Kili continued.

"I met the elf prince," I told them. "I tried to get him to help us."

"You tried to get the _elf prince_ to help _us_?" Thorin asked in disbelief.

"Um...yeah?" I replied.

"Why?" His voice was carefully measured, as if he was purposely avoiding losing his temper. A good idea, with my track record.

"Because I know him," I said. They all stared at me in disbelief. "Like, he didn't know me," I told them quickly, trying to make it up. "His name is Legolas. He's kind of nice, I guess. I -" I blushed, "I flirted with him to try and get him to help us escape." I avoided Kili's gaze as I continued. "And...he refused. He almost fell for it...but then he left. So when I escaped tonight, I was practically insane, right? So I had this ridiculous idea to go to his room. So I went to his room, and I flirted with him again, and..." I swallowed and turned away from all of them, remembering how horrible it could've been. "It didn't work," I said, my voice kind of hoarse. "So I knocked him out and came down here."

There was silence for a moment, and then Bilbo said uncomfortably, "Listen, we can discuss Freya's full story later. Right now we need to get everyone in the barrels and get out of here." Everybody dispersed, going to their respective barrels. Bilbo sprinted in between them, putting in more straw for packing them in, and screwing their lids on.

Kili and I hung back a few moments and he leaned behind a full barrel and produced two long, sharp objects. "Here," he said, handing them to me. I gazed at them, realising that they were Ripplescale and Glitterthorn, in their sheaths, ready to take with us.

I stared up at him. "Did you get all of the weapons?"

He nodded. "Yeah. The swords are with Fili, who's small enough to fit them with him. And the bows and other things are with Ori, who's not careful enough with sharp objects, but small enough for them. But I thought you'd want your swords with you, and you gave your bow to Moonshadow."

I gazed up at him with wordless thanks. "What about you? You should've had the swords. You're smaller than Fili, but bigger than Ori."

Kili grinned down at me. "_You're_ riding with me."

Four simple words, and the whole barrel thing was sold. I had been unhappy about knowing that I was gonna be in a barrel for days on end – but now that this was offered up, I didn't care.

I secured the swords on my back in an X as usual. I slid in after Kili, Bilbo secured our lid, and then we waited. We heard Bilbo pattering around on his hobbit feet making sure that everyone was in order. We waited for a half an hour, not daring to move, until we heard the elves roll us out – and felt it.

We landed with a huge splash, and I felt some water trickle in through a hole. It was kind of uncomfortable, squished in with Kili. I shifted slightly, and felt my knee jut upward. I heard a huge oof from Kili, and I realised just where my knee had gone. "Sorry!" I squeaked.

"It's fine," grunted Kili. There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment, and then I just relaxed. It wasn't like Kili could get out of the barrel now, both literally and figuratively.

"So what now?" I asked quietly.

Kili shifted into a more comfortable position. "Now," he said, "We talk."

**'Nother chapter coming soon. Love you all! As always, please review.**


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27:

And so it began. I hesitantly asked him, "Do you want to know about my past?"

In the dark, I couldn't read his expression when he lifted his gaze from his hands to my face. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I nodded wordlessly. I had spent too long listening to Gandalf's advice to pretend that I had no past, practically.

"Then yes. I would very much like to know where you come from. I want to know why you are who you are."

I swallowed, and started to explain. "You already know a lot, though. Well, not everything. You know that I originally thought I came from a world called Earth. I lived there for twenty-four years without much interesting things happening, and then I died, and came here. Once I came here, Gandalf realised that I am a dwarf-human witch. I had, apparently, only been gone for three months. I didn't tell you that." Kili gasped and made to say something, but I pressed on. "Um, I don't remember anything about a life here. Nothing. According to Gandalf, this and the fact that I went to Earth to live for twenty-four years was because of a powerful spell – a mistake on my part. I had to die there to come back. But I think that I had to be around the same age there as I was here in order to come back. I don't know much else." I sighed. "I'm not sure that life really existed Kili. What if it was all a lie?"

"How do you tell the lies from the truth?" he asked. "What you've got to remember is that sometimes, often, the lies and the truth are like this." He held up two fingers, crossed. "Think of it this way. The truth is something that is real. Whether you believe it's real or not, it has no effect on it. It's still truth. The lies, however, have not been real and never will be. A real lie, as it were. The question is whether you believe it was _real_."

I smiled at him, grateful to the explanation. "That makes sense. In that case, I do believe it was real, which makes it the truth."

I went on to explain about Moonshadow in more detail than before, and to explain how my magic worked. Then I tried to explain a lot of things from home, like films and computers. I tried with minimal success to explain the internet to Kili, but when I started talking about Tumblr and Fanfiction and Pottermore, he started to get confused.

Finally, he managed to break in. "Freya. Three months, right?"

"Yeah, that's what Gandalf said," I replied, puzzled that he would bring this up now.

"Freya, d'you remember Tralique?"

"Yeah. She was the only girl you really liked, right?" I didn't add the "before me" part.

"Yes." He hesitated a moment, taking a deep breath. "Freya, she went missing three months ago. She looked exactly like you, and acted like you, but she never told me she had magic. She never even told me she was half-human. But I guessed. And then she disappeared. I thought she was gone forever, but – I guess not."

I clutched the inside of the barrel as my world swayed. Even if we hadn't been floating down a river, the result would have been the same. I knew that if I had been standing up, I would have pitched over and found myself sitting down hard on the ground. "I'm – I can't be her. I can't be a different person."

"But she wasn't different from you. She _was_ you," Kili said earnestly.

I fought the impulse to yell at him. Our relationship had finally taken off, and now he was trying to connect me to his past? He was trying to make me into the girl he had once loved. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Kili – are you sure?"

"Yes." His voice was so full of certainty, I just couldn't _not_ believe him.

"How can I have no memory of that? No memory of _you_? Why would I have chosen to experiment in stupid magic to get myself wrenched away from you? Why can I remember my Earth life if I can't remember my sixty-eight years here, before then? How -"

"I don't know, Freya," Kili interrupted, and I was relieved that he hadn't called me Tralique. "But I know that you're her, and she's you. You're the same person." He (with slight difficulty) put his hands on my face and forced me to look into his eyes. "I'm not asking you to be a new person. I'm not asking you to compete with her, your past self. I'm asking you to understand that we've met before, we've kissed before, we've had an entire life together before. So why do we have to start over?"

"Because I don't remember it," I whispered, and I felt a tear trickle down my face.

"That's okay," replied Kili, also in a whisper as he reached up with his thumb to brush away the salty liquid. "Because I do. And you don't have to be exactly who you were. You just have to be you, because that's the person I love. Freya Macintosh, from Earth." He laughed slightly. "You don't even have to change your name. I just want you to be you. Because I love you, just like I loved Tralique. But I think I love the new you more."

I swallowed and smiled at him. "I love you, too, Kili," I told him softly. "And I love you all the more for not asking me to be someone I don't think I am. Maybe I used to be, but I'm new now. And I love you for knowing that, and letting me be me."

He leaned forward, bringing my head towards his, and suddenly what had been a recounting of my past became an intense make-out session. And then it was spoiled by what felt like going over a bloody waterfall.

Kili's forehead banged into my nose, and I winced as I heard a muffled crack. Not painful enough to be broken, though. Then I cried out as I felt a huge jolt run through the whole barrel, causing it to roll over and over on itself and for me to just land on top of Kili. He oofed, and then suddenly the barrel went berserk, tossing itself all over the place. I knew that we had hit some form of rapids, because there was a strange dipping sensation, almost like going over several consecutive small hills on a roller coaster.

I shrieked, practically flipping out and clinging to Kili's huge leather coat that he had somehow managed to squeeze into the barrel with us.

"You okay, Freya?" asked Kili with a smirk as the ride smoothed out.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "No, my nose is bleeding." We couldn't really do anything about it, though. So I just stayed there and felt it drip and we laid in silence for almost an hour. I didn't relax very much, keeping my arms around the dwarf's shoulders, and he kept an arm around my waist. I eventually fell asleep, but the dreams weren't great.

_I was sitting in a tree, whistling to myself. I didn't really get what I was doing, but it seemed like something better to do than what was going on below._

_My tree was high up on a mountain, and beneath me the ground writhed with different bodies. Orcs and Wargs against dwarves, humans, elves. I frowned, sharpening my sight at the ground, seeing a small hole in the fighting. I gasped as I saw Fili and Kili, side by side, yelling and slicing their swords all over the place. Behind them, against the foreboding wall of a cliff on the lower mountainside, was Thorin. He was in a bad way, with a mace-wound to his head and a sword wound that looked like he'd held a sword between his ribs and his arm – except that there was too much blood. _

_I looked back at my princes, only to see the lighter one be speared through the stomach. Kili blanched and fell to his knees beside his dying brother, only to receive a vicious blow from a mace to the head. _

_And just like that, the three dwarves of the line of Durin died._

I opened my eyes to find tears streaming silently down my face. Kili was huddled in away from me on his side of the barrel, separated from me. I could see that his shirt was wet and blood-red, and there were a few scratches on his face. I noticed that both of his legs had been drawn up towards his chest, as if they had been badly bruised.

I glanced at my hands, noticing that the red had stopped from my nose. It was all dry now, which made me a little happier. Then I touched my cheeks, feeling wetness and wondering why.

And then I remembered my dream, and I broke out in a sob. Kili's head jerked up, his brown eyes opening as he realised that I was awake. He immediately shifted over to me, wrapping his arms around me. He ripped a strip of fabric off of his shirt and held it to my nose. "Blow," he ordered. I obediently did as directed. "You okay?" he asked quietly, in a voice completely different from the last time he'd asked me that.

I swallowed a few tears, succeeding in stemming the flow. "I – had a dream."

"Guessed that," he pointed out.

"Um...not a nice dream."

"What happened?"

I turned away. "I – it – you died." Way to be subtle. "Thorin died, Fili died, and you died. All of you. At this huge battle -" I broke off. Nobody but me knew about that battle yet.

"We died, and you cried," Kili said by way of recap.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"That sucks, Freya. But you know what? I'm still here, and you're still here. For now, let's just enjoy that."

I gazed up at him, feeling much better. "Kili, by the _Valar_ I have no words to describe how much I love you."

He smiled at me. "Right back atcha, Frey."

**SO! Many of you were correct. Freya is Tralique, and so Kili knows her from the past. I hadn't realised until I posted that chapter that I had set it up that way, but I did.**

**You people should probably know that I am, under no circumstances, going to kill Kili in the Battle of the Five Armies. Hope you're pleased. Unfortunately, I would like to stick fairly close to story, and therefore Thorin may die. Still reserving judgement on Fili. **

**Now, I am very sorry about this. However, I am going on a ****_very_**** long hiatus. This computer upon which I type now is old, and shall die very soon. My new one will (hopefully) come into existence in mid-to-late July. My last day will be June 10th. Today. I am very sad and unhappy for this pause in my writing, but as soon as I can I will update. On top of all of this, I hope to create at least another Spirk fic (longer this time) and possibly a crossover in which Sherlock goes to Hogwarts. This probably won't happen for awhile, though, so don't get too excited.**

**Remember that this isn't the end of this story or of my existence on this website. I ****_will_**** come back, so don't give up! Just...don't check to see if I've updated till late-ish July.**

**As always, please review. I'll miss you guys so much!**


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 27:

I woke up with a start, suddenly wondering just how much time had passed. It had been at least two days, it had to be, but I didn't know exactly how long it'd been.

"Bilbo?" I called softly, pounding on the side of barrel. "Bilbo, old pal, when can we get out?"

A loud thump resounded through the barrel, with a harsh, "Shut up!"

"Bilbo!" I said happily. "When can we -"

"Certainly not right now! Now be _quiet_ for God's sake, Freya!" I heard him jump onto another barrel.

"Well. That's that, then." I glanced over at Kili, to find him still sleeping. I rolled my eyes and shoved him. He groaned and rolled over - or tried to. He ended up smashing his face on the side of our barrel. What a way to wake up.

With a muffled groan of "Food..." he woke up, rubbing his nose. "What happened?" he asked groggily.

"You tried to roll over," I replied, stifling a giggle. "And smashed your face." He grunted in reply. "I'm surprised you didn't wake up sooner," I continued, "Considering the racket Bilbo was making."

Kili looked confused. "Bilbo?"

"He's on top of the barrels, silly. He's riding them. Apparently he never got a barrel for himself. I knocked on the side and asked if he could let us out - he told me to shut up. We have a ways to go, I guess. I think I'm going to starve from lack of scenery."

"I bet I'm going to starve the normal way," muttered Kili.

"Oh!" I gasped, smacking myself in the forehead, then rooting around in my jacket. "Here," I told him, handing him a chunk of bread, a slab of cheese, and an apple.

He took them silently, gobbling them up. He indicated that he was thirsty, and I handed him one of two flagons of mead, ordering him to only drink a couple of draughts. He did, handed it back, and asked, "Where didja get this?"

"I squirrelled it all away from the elves. I've got way more, but we've got to be careful - we've got _at least_ two more days, maybe three."

He nodded silently.

Two days passed without incident, and then, suddenly, I felt a huge bump radiate throughout the barrel. "What the hell -" I gasped, with the air of having just woken up - which I had.

Suddenly, the top popped off of the barrel. Standing there, outlined against the starry sky and tree-covered shore, poking his head towards the hole, was an incredibly waterlogged Bilbo. "Out," he whispered.

Kili and I were only too happy to oblige. I slid out first, then Kili came out. Bilbo stared enviously into our nice, dry, and roomy barrel. Neither of us were stiff, and we had only a few scratches and bruises to show for the ride. We both dropped our stuff on shore, and helped dig through the barrels to find the ones with dwarves in them. When all of said dwarves were on shore, some worse for wear, we all sat down.

"What next, Bilbo?" I asked jauntily.

"Lake-town, of course," he said tiredly. "According to the elves poling along the barrels, it's two days' walk from here."

Loud complaints filled the air. Bilbo tried to override them, but to no avail. Finally, I stood up and did my best taxi cab whistle, shutting up all of the dwarves. "Listen. I know you're hungry, you're cold, you're wet, you're sore. But isn't that pretty much what we all were inside that cursed Mirkwood? We made it out of that bloody forest, didn't we? When we ran out of food, we just tightened our belts and continued, did we not? We'll just do it again! At least this way, we know there's an end in sight! But tonight, we will have fire. That's heat and dry, at least. And, we do have food."

Looking confused, the dwarves broke out yelling again. "No, we don't!" yelled Bofur. "What food could there _possibly_ be, lass?" asked Dwalin.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled again. When they were quiet, I reached into my coat pockets. Kili and I had eaten a lot, but there was enough to last the whole company tonight, and even tomorrow night, if there was no breakfast or lunch in between.

The next day, we woke up, and trudged along. After a full day of fast walking, we settled down for a fire again, and I dealt out the remainder of my food. We settled down for the night, and I curled up next to Kili.

Around midnight, I was woken up by a tap on my shoulder. "Freya," hissed a voice, and I was surprised to recognise Thorin. I extricated myself from Kili's arms, and stood up, following the king to the edge of the clearing. "What, Thorin?" I asked, not impolitely, but abruptly enough to show that I was tired and wanted to go back to sleep.

"I see you've taken up with my nephew."

It wasn't a question. I thanked whatever gods there might have been that it was dark, because my cheeks turned as red as traffic lights. "Ye-e-es," I replied, drawing it out to imply that I didn't understand why this warranted conversation.

"Don't play with his emotions." It was direct, obvious, not like most people, who simply implied it. "He is young, Freya. He has not had many relationships. He doesn't understand much about these things. The few women who have been with him have not payed any mind to his feelings, especially the most recent, whatever her name was - Tralukee, or something -"

"It was Tralique," I snapped, "And she had no choice about leaving suddenly."

"What do _you_ know about it?" asked Thorin abruptly.

"Kili told me about it. What do you _think_ we were talking about, four days in a barrel, just the two of us? I mean, really."

Thorin gave me a suspicious look. "Did you two -"

_"NO,"_ I said exasperatedly. "For what I feel is the eighty bjillionth time on this quest, _no_, Kili and I did not have sex, and we won't, so get your mind out of the gutter. Got it?"

With that, I stormed back to mine and Kili's spot by the fire, and curled up again, falling asleep with the notion that my conversation with Thorin was not over, just paused.

I woke up the next day as light bled into my eyelids. I sat up, fully awake, and kicked the remains of the fire. Sparks flew into the air. It was our last day on the road until after Lake-town. I frowned at the trees. I couldn't help but think that this was a huge turning point. I didn't want to stop travelling with my dwarves. I had grown used to it. I wasn't sure that I could sleep in an inn, or a pub, or whatever.

I heard crunching footsteps behind me, and I spun to find Kili coming up behind me. "We're leaving, Frey," he said gently.

"Last day on the road," I murmured.

"No," he said quietly. "We'll have more after Lake-town."

"I'm not sure I can hack sleeping in an inn," I confessed as we began walking again.

He laughed quietly. "I think you can. After all, they'll give you food. Lots of food."

I grinned. "I do like food," I admitted.

"That's what I thought," he laughed.

And off we plodded through the woods, towards the end of our journey, ever-conscious of the looming Lonely Mountain, getting closer with every step we took.

**And hello! I am back, with a brand new MacBook Air! **

**I am sososososososososo sorry I took so long! I missed you so much, and I hope to continue updating regularly from now on. Thank you for your continued support, and please review!**

**Oh, and, as I said before - I know that I'm killing Thorin. I know that I'm definitely ****_not_**** killing Kili. But what about Fili? Thoughts?**


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29:

After walking for hours, I would have gladly sat down. But when night finally fell, when we finally reached the outskirts of Lake-town, there was no sitting down for me.

"Oh, _come on_," I hissed as we reached a small bridge where two guards were standing. Thorin, of course, strode to the front of our bedraggled, miserable, footsore group and puffed his chest out like a proud peacock. "I am Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King Under the Mountain," he announced in his patented "majestic" voice. "I have come to reclaim my own."

And naturally, what followed were formal solemnities that had me wanting to bang my head repeatedly and none-too-gently against something very hard.

Finally, when I could take it no more, I sighed very loudly and said, from a position with Fili and Kili near Thorin's shoulder, "Come _on_, people. I'm hungry, tired, cold, and absolutely sick of formalities. Can we just come and stay at an inn or something? Like, _now_?"

Ignoring Thorin's withering look at me, I glared straight at the guards. After brief hesitation, one of them bowed and said, "Our apologies, gentle lady, we did not see -"

"Not exactly what I was looking for," I interrupted. "I don't want you pandering to me, since I could probably bust your asses any day of the week. I'm hardly _gentle_, and all I really wanted was to get your attention and get you to _take us to food_. And sleep," I added as an afterthought.

With another hesitation and a couple of shared looks, the guard who had spoken said, "If you would follow me."

And off we went into Lake-town, formerly Esgaroth. I frowned as we passed the hall where the Master of the town was feasting. I had always hated that character. He was so full of himself, and terribly selfish. I couldn't help but wish that Bard was already in charge of Lake-town.

However, I wouldn't have to see him tonight. We were showed to an inn, where we set up, and then all of the dwarves went off with Thorin, presumably to get drunk. However, I held Kili back. "We had a bet, buddy," I informed him.

"Which one?" he asked, turning around fully to look at me.

"The one that you can't drink anything alcoholic here. Remember? At Beorn's? With the archery?"

He gave me a look of pleading. "Come on, Freya. Please?" He was trying to appeal to my sense of mercy and fairness.

Fortunately for him, I was highly lenient. "You get three nights of our stay here to drink yourself under the table," I told him. "You pick which ones."

He gave me a swift kiss and grinned at me as he left. "This is one of them," he called as he walked out.

I sighed, leaning against the wall. "Well, Bilbo, it's just you and me." I turned around to face the room - and find it empty. Bilbo, apparently, had gone to bed. And he needed the sleep. He had a dreadful cold.

"Okay, so it's just me and myself," I muttered. I wandered until I found a kitchen, where I loaded at much as I could fit onto a plate, grabbed a flagon of ale, and wandered upstairs.

Turns out, I can't hold my liquor very well.

After one flagon, I went down and grabbed an armful. For some reason, I felt like washing away my life at the moment. When I was done with those, I was fairly tipsy.

I was about to take the stairs down towards the kitchen, but then I tripped and ended up doing some sort of bizarre ninja roll until I hit a wall at the bottom.

Straightening up, I muttered, "I meant to do that."

Ten minutes and several drinks later, I was contemplating the stairs with a frown. They seemed to be moving and twisting and being all bent out of shape. "What the hell..." I murmured.

I heard a _very_ loud bang, followed by drunken singing. The dwarves were back. I spun and crossed my arms. If I was buzzed, it was nothing compared to them. I still had control over most of my mental faculties - excepting movement and speech. "Kili," I yelled. "Just how drunk are you?"

He popped out of the group. Just by looking at him, I could tell that he wasn't quite as bad as some of his fellows, but he was a little worse off than me.

It seemed that he could tell that I'd been drinking, too. "You're one to talk," he sniggered.

"Come on," I muttered. "We're getting you to bed." I turned around again, and frowned at the stairs. "Kili, they're moving."

"What, the stairs?" He squinted at them with me. "Hey, you're right. That's weird."

For the first time, I began to wonder just how drunk I was. "What is wrong with me?" I grumbled, leaning against the wall.

"You're right. We should go to bed," Kili announced. He turned as if to inform the rest of his kin, but I managed to slap a hand over his mouth.

"Don't," I muttered. The last thing I needed right now was a conversation with Thorin. And so, the two of us tripped up the stairs, trying not to kill ourselves. I desperately wished that the ninja roll would have worked upwards. "Damn gravity," I mumbled.

"What?" Kili asked, making as if to turn to look at me.

"Don't turn!" I yelped. "I think I'll fall if you do."

We eventually navigated our way to a room, and I collapsed onto the bed. "Urgh," I groaned. Kili made as if to leave, but I grabbed his arm. (Don't ask how, it was a small room.) "Don't," I said. "Your uncle won't kill us."

"He might," replied the dwarf, but he too collapsed onto the bed. I stared at him for awhile, and he stared at me. Finally, I made the decision.

"Not tonight." Kili nodded and enveloped me in a hug. Of course, I fell asleep about two seconds afterward.

The next morning was _not_ pretty. I woke up with a groan at the sunlight that was streaming in the window. "Make it go away," I moaned, covering my head with a pillow. Kili stumbled to his feet, shut the curtains, and flopped back onto the bed.

My head felt like somebody was trying to drive a nail through my skull. With a hammer. And the person wielding the hammer was drunk, so they kept missing and hitting other parts of my skull. Which hurt just as much.

I explained it to Kili, topping it off with the fact that I felt like I was going to throw up. He snickered. "Haven't you ever been drunk before?"

"Yes," I said defensively.

"How many times?"

I muttered a number into my pillow that sounded a lot like "two or three."

"That's what I thought," chortled Kili, who, to my chagrin, was showing little to no symptoms of a hangover.

"Don't you ever get hungover?" I asked frustratedly,

"I haven't in a long time - I have to drink a lot to get hungover. I'd be so drunk, you'd've had to carry me to bed."

I snorted into my pillow. "I would've needed _at least_ your brother's help for that, if not your uncle's."

He sniggered. "The point is that it wouldn't happen, Frey."

"Yes, I get that," I replied. "D'you have any remedies to this unfortunate condition?"

"Either tea imbibed with whiskey, or magic," replied Kili.

"We'll try natural remedies first," I grunted, getting up. I stumbled into a tiny washroom, brushed my teeth, redid my tangled hair, and splashed water on my face. Altogether feeling more like a person, I walked towards the stairs.

"Don't fall," Kili advised.

"So _very_ helpful," I sneered over my shoulder at him.

"I pride myself on being so," came the calm reply.

"Sure."

We reached the kitchen, and I quickly made tea, found a bottle of scotch (close enough to whiskey) and plopped a couple of drops of the scotch into the mug of tea.

I sucked down the tea, and waited a few minutes. Finding myself impatient and still with a headache, I reached up and pressed a hand to my necklace, Then released a spell to alleviate the head pain. It disappeared within second, and I sighed with relief. "Much better," I said happily.

Kili smiled. "Good. Although it's amusing to watch you act funny, it's good to have you back to normal."

"You know me," I replied with a sarcastic grin. "I'm never normal."

Just then, a host of dwarves came marching into the kitchen. Only a few months ago, I would have flinched and ducked as my travelling companions began to throw plates, bowls, cups, and utensils about the room. Even Bilbo, who had walked in, had grown so used to the dwarves' pinpoint precision with throwing and catching and their odd love of doing as much as they could, that he wasn't flinching either.

Eventually, though, the fact that a couple of them were hungover became apparent. As all of them had been far more drunk than Kili had been last night (excepting Thorin), all of them were more hungover. Their throwing and timing was slightly off, and more and more dishes were flying closer and closer to my head. Finally, a spoon caught me in the ear, and I gave up and shouted, "ENOUGH! You can't throw things around like that if you're not in _full possession_ of _all_ of your faculties. Else, you'll hurt someone or something."

Looking properly abashed, the dwarves settled down and ate quietly.

Suddenly, Thorin finally walked in. The Company, who had been talking quietly, hushed again. I sighed, staring at my empty mug that used to hold a hangover remedy. I knew what was coming.

"Freya," said Thorin. "A word, if you please."

Yup. Called it. "Coming, Thorin," I replied.

I stood up, squeezed Kili's hand reassuringly (he was shooting me nervous and I-told-you-so looks), and followed Thorin out of the room.

**_Told_**** you I would be updating a lot. Here's the next chapter, my friends. **

**I have been told to keep Fili alive by at least one person, so at this point I'm going to go with that.**

**I just want you guys to know (in case others think the same thing) that I have been falsely accused of plagiarizing agent-of-fear's story, The Inconvenient and Unexpected Journey of Alexandria Millicent Fournier. I have informed the person who accused me of this (politely) that they are incorrect. In case others have noticed similarities, I just wanted to point out: I told you guys ****_up front_**** in the very first chapter that the idea of a girl being snatched from Earth and brought to Middle-Earth was mainly based on the idea from agent-of-fear's story. However, as you guys should know, ideas are free. If you guys notice similar descriptions - I mean, how many ****_different_**** ways can you describe the exact same thing? Admit it. Not that many.**

**But if anybody ****_really_**** wants to know (as my accuser clearly did), At one point, when I started writing this (a good two months after I saw the movie, mind) I forgot a lot of what happened in the movie. So, I opened up a fic that I was reading, which I believe was Among Dwarves by Bagginses' (it could have been Follow Me by FireheadHuntress, also) and read along that, using it to help me remember. If you see similar descriptions, that's why.**

**If it makes any of you feel any better, I'm going to be going over this once it's completely finished and editing ****_everything_****. I myself, reading over this thing, wince several times a chapter at what I think are huge errors that need to be corrected, including a couple continuity issues. **

**Good, that's out of the way. Until next time, my friends! Please review!**


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30:

"Alright, Thorin," I said, crossing my arms as he led me down into a very well-hidden wine cellar. "What d'you want?"

He against a barrel. "You and I need to talk."

"Yeah, got that," I said grouchily, scooting upwards to sit on a barrel with my legs dangling off. I gave the barrel a good thwack with my foot, which was bothering me - I had had enough of barrels in the past few days. "What about?"

He gave me a look, and opened his mouth to reply.

"Wait -" I interrupted. "Lemme guess. Me and Kili."

Thorin gave me a different look - this one searching. "Correct. You and he -"

"Slept in the same room last night? Yeah, I get it. He and I sleep within ten feet of each other, and you assume we had sex. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were both kinda drunk last night, Thorin. We just fell asleep in the same bed. It's not like anything happened."

Thorin looked slightly alarmed, as if he hadn't known about me and Kili sleeping in the same bed the night before.

"Chill, dude. I already _told_ you nothing happened."

Looking calmer, he continued. "Freya..." he hesitated a moment, then pushed on. "He is young. He does not understand matters of the heart, of love."

"Yes, he does," I replied quietly. "He loves _me_."

"Does he know what that entails?"

I bit my lip, unable to answer that.

"Precisely. Now, the real question is, do you love him?"

That got me angrier, perhaps, than anything else the dwarf king had said. Which was why, instead of yelling, I simply replied in a low, dangerous voice. "You need to understand something, Thorin. I'll tell you a secret. I am originally from Middle Earth. As a result of my own magic, a mistake, I was ripped away from this world and lived in a different one. I died there, and returned here. As it turns out, Kili's last girlfriend was _me_. Before I disappeared. D'you think for a _second_ that I would play with him? Do you think for one _moment_ that I would do something that shallow?"

I didn't wait for a response. My voice was so full of venom, of coldness, of barely, poorly contained fury, that I didn't blame Thorin for keeping silent.

"Of course I love him. I have loved hims since the beginning of this mad quest, and before. I would die for him, he would die for me, and yet if he died I might just kill myself, for without him in my life, what's the point? He is everything I have ever hoped for in a man, everything I have dreamed of, he _embodies_ the other half of my soul, and you have the _nerve_ to ask if I love him? You have the nerve to ask _if_ I love him?"

Silence reigned for a solid two minutes. Thorin contemplated me for a long time, and finally nodded. "I think we're done here."

"I think that you never should have asked," I replied coldly, stalking out past rows of barrels, back into the kitchen.

**Soooo. Sorries 'bout the wait - it sucks, writer's block. And it ended up being that I was in a mood...so I've already written the death scene. And now you have to wait for it! And that sucks, too, because the whole time I was writing it, I almost burst into tears, so - I can't wait to see your reactions.**

**Sorry this is so short, I'll have more ASAP! pLeAsE ReViEw!**


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31:

Once back in the kitchen, I pulled Kili into the next room. "What -" he began, before I pulled his face down to mine and captured his lips in a fierce kiss. He returned the pressure, squeezing me between his body and the wall. Which was how I liked it. With him not being so gentle as to make like he was in complete control, but not hard enough so that it hurt.

Finally, I came up for air, one of my hands fisted in his shirt and the other tangled in his hair, and one of his pressed into my back and the other knotted in my hair. "What was that about?" he gasped, leaning his forehead against mine.

I leaned into his head's pressure, feeling the flush of his skin against my own. "Making a point," I replied with a wicked grin.

I felt rather than saw him raise an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Thorin," I said, as if that explained everything.

"What about him?"

I sighed deeply. "He asked if I love you."

I felt him go rigid. "What did you say?"

I jerked my head away from his, reluctantly removing my hands from their places as he did the same. I carefully maintained the distance between our bodies, though, not willing to let go of the warmth just yet. "The truth," I said quietly.

He swallowed. "Which is -"

I rolled my eyes. "That I love you, Kili, more than anyone I have ever -" I took a deep, shuddering breath, and decided to just repeat my words from before. They had worked then - why not now? "Of course I love you. I've loved you since the beginning of this ridiculous quest, and before, which you know. I would die for you, you'd die for me, but if you died I might just kill myself, because without you in my life, what's the point? You're everything I've ever wanted, needed, dreamed about, you're the other half of my _soul_, Kili, and you still want to know if I love you?" I stared straight up at him, my blue eyes meeting his brown with an intense gaze. "Of course I love you," I reiterated, my voice dropping to a whisper.

The look in his eyes could have frightened me, but given the fact that a huge, fire-breathing dragon waited for us in a mountain not to far away, it didn't.

And then, suddenly, his mouth was against mine, pressing me against the wall again, and suddenly his tongue had burst between my lips and was exploring my mouth. I coiled my tongue against his, feeling the heat of his mouth -

And then suddenly we broke apart again, both of my hands fisted in his shirt this time and both of his behind my head. I swallowed and leaned my forehead against his shoulder, my breathing uneven and shallow. "Kili -"

He let go. I was so surprised, I froze. Then he backed up, and I almost fell forward. I looked up at his face and saw something I had rarely seen in it.

Fear.

Then he was running, running up the stairs away from me, and all I could do was lean against the wall and think. What was he afraid of?

Then it hit me. He was afraid of what he'd done. He'd felt something, and I happened to know what it was, and he was scared of how far he'd go before he could stop himself, scared of what his uncle would say and think.

I sighed again, rubbing my hand over my forehead and pushed myself off the wall with a groan. And slowly, I followed Kili up the stairs.

I found the bedroom we'd shared the night before with the door closed, and I eased it open. He was sitting like a scared child, his knees up to his chin, rocking slowly back and forth.

"Hey," I whispered.

He jerked slightly.

"Come on, Kili, you're going to be fine. Why are you so scared? It's not as if that's not normal."

We both knew what I was talking about, but he flinched like I had mentioned something cursed, something that should never come out of one's mouth. He swallowed, and then he said, "Freya, dwarves don't do that."

For a moment, I was confused. "Dwarves don't kiss?"

A dry chuckle escaped him. "No," he said, finally giving me his full attention as he stood up, closing the door behind me. "Dwarves -"

"Don't you tell me they don't have sex, because then, where would baby dwarves come from? They don't just spring out of the ground, you know. That's a myth." I crossed my arms and gave him a look that plainly said, _Don't you dare make up something that stupid._

He chuckled again. "Freya, of course dwarves have sex. You're right, then where would little dwarves come from? My _point_ is, that -" And suddenly, he stopped talking again. It was like he could get just far enough, then the words stuck in his throat, and he had to let me play a guessing game.

I sighed heavily. "Let me guess. Ya have to get married first."

He glanced away for a second, at the window for some reason. "Yeah."

I grabbed his shoulder and turned him so he faced me. "Are. You. Insane? There's a giant fucking _dragon_ waiting for us in that mountain, okay, and more danger afterwards that I _can't tell you about_, and you're telling me that we have to get _married_ before you'll stop running off like a scared kid whenever we kiss like normal people?"

He flinched. "No.."

"Then what -"

"Freya." I stopped talking, stopped moving. "There can be love without sex."

"There _is_ love without sex, that's what we have now, you clotpole!" I snapped.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Freya - you can't ask me to do this," he said quietly.

"I'm not," I replied in an equally quiet voice. "I'm asking you to stop being afraid of what you feel. I know we can't have sex - Thorin'll kill me, he's expressly told me not to - but that's not what I want from you, okay, I'm not some dumb monkey who wants only sex. I want _you_, Kili, just you. And I'll take you how I can get you, because I don't think we have a lot of time."

He stared at me for a moment, then nodded. "That makes sense," he conceded.

"Of course it does," I said with a cheeky grin. "I know _everything_."

He laughed outright, then, and wrapped me up in a hug. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head (which still came just beneath his chin) and said, "Come on. We've only got a few days here."

I groaned. "I want to get out of here."

"What? And continue towards that dragon?" asked Kili in mock surprise.

"Yeah, I want to get it over with," I sniggered into his jacket.

He smirked. "Yeah, sure." He sobered up quickly. "Just don't - make sure you don't die."

"I could ask the same of you."

"It's a deal," he said firmly. "I won't die if you won't, and vice versa."

"Works for me."

"It better."

"It does."

"Good."

And so we left the room together, feeling for once that things had been sorted out pretty well.

**Looks like paranoia runs in the family. This is mostly a filler chapter for me to test out the boundaries of the Freya/Kili relationship. New chapter coming soon, probably much better, XD. Thnx for reading, PLEASE REVIEW!**


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